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HEROES AND SPIES 

OF THE 

CIVIL WAR 



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HEROES AND SPIES 

OF THE 

CIVIL WAR 



BY 

DAVID HUMPHREYS 

Of the original '^Stonewall" Brigade, and later 
Captain in Ashby's Cavalry. 



New York and Washington 

The Neale Publishing Company 

M C M I I I 






Copyright, 190^ 
!y The Neale Publishing Company 



^^V 



91 



DEDICATION. 

To the memory of my dear wife, who en- 
dured the trials and sufferings of war and the 
privations and poverty which followed in its 
wake; from whom I was parted a year at a 
time; whose home w^as within the enemy's 
lines, and in a town which changed hands 
more than a hundred times, often shelled and 
set afire ; who was often within the sound of 
the dull thud of artillery, showing that battles 
were in progress, without being able for 
weeks after to know whether I was dead or 
alive ; and who risked all kinds of exposure 
and danger to come to my side when I was 
wounded — with loving gratitude I dedicate 
this little book, my first work during my re- 
covery from an illness that took me down to 
the border-land between life and death. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter. Page 

I. The Escape, 13 

11. Operations in the Valley, 29 

III. Strange Experiences, 45 

IV. As Told by the Camp-fire, 55 

V. More Camp-fire Tales, 70 

VI. Risky Business — More Stories, S6 

VII. A Banquet and Other Things, 115 

VIII. Fun, Fighting and Facts, 120 

IX. The Closing of Centre's Career, 146 
X. The Wilderness— First Conflict 

with General Grant, 168 

XT Beginning of the End, 182 

XII. Some Reminiscences, 193 

XIII. Cavalry vs. Infantry — Stonewall 

Jackson, 206 

XIV. Summary— The End, 212 



INTRODUCTION. 

It has been held, and truly, that the man 
in whose veins are commingled the blood of 
the pious Puritans of New England and the 
chivalric Cavalier of the South is the grand- 
est man that God ever made. No higher il- 
lustration of that truth can be found than in 
the lives of some of the men whose deeds of 
heroism are herein recorded. Some from 
the North and som.e from the South. 

When the first gun was fired at Sumter the 
reverberation of its shell went around the 
world, proclaiming that the greatest and 
bravest people on earth had been rent by the 
question of States rights and Federal su- 
premacy. We of the South had been educat- 
ed to believe that our State was first in our 
hearts and first in our aft'ections and loyalty ; 
while our brethren of the North, equally 
honest, equally brave, were taught to regard 
the Nation and its symbol as supreme. That 
constituted the irrepressible conflict of which 



lO HEROICS AND SPIES 01? TB.t CIVIIv WAR. 

Mr. Seward spoke. Never was the institu- 
tion of slavery the cause of the great strug- 
gle. It was to reconcile two conflicting ideas 
and to fuse two antagonistic elements in the 
hot crucible of war, and make them one peo- 
ple, and the grandest people upon which the 
sun ever shone. 

Many years ago, I remember that in riding 
through one of the great silent forests of 
cypress that fringe the banks of the Missis- 
sippi River I noticed some score of feet above 
the earth a white line running all through 
that forest for miles and miles. Below that 
line the trunks of those great monarchs of 
the forest were of one color — above that 
they were another. The cause, I learned, 
was that the turbid waters of the Mississippi, 
when they came down in that immense flood 
that knows no resisting power, had discolor- 
ed those trunks. Above they were all fair; 
below all foul. That was the high-water 
mark, and we, too, in our generation have 
seen the high-watej: mark of passion and prej- 
udice, of war and misery. Happily, however, 
all that is passed, to be seen no more. The 
fires in that chasm were quenched in brother's 
blood. 

No stranger character came to the surface 
during the bloody strife of pur inter-state war 
than the one mysterious foreigner whose 



INTRODUCTION. II 

varied experiences are interwoven with those 
of the chivahic men with whom he mingled 
in camp, march, and field of carnage. That 
man played a desperate game ; one, indeed, so 
strange that it is hard to beHeve. 

The adventures recounted and the danger- 
ous risks incurred are all truly told, though 
they may seem stranger than fiction. None 
of which to the writer seems stranger than 
the fact that he was shot three times, at short 
range, with a rifle, and carried across the 
Rappahannock River for dead, and yet sur- 
vives to record these strange things. 

The author assumes the name of Marr in 
this little book, and his reason for so doing 
is that he might thereby avoid the too fre- 
quent use of the personal pronoun "I." 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ESCAPE. 

One gloomy day in February, 1862, a 
squad of men were hovering around a fire 
kindled against a great old stump, which 
served as a good back-log or fire-back for the 
burning wood. The little group was clad in 
the rough gray in use by the Southern sol- 
diers, and was composed of a lieutenant, a 
sergeant, a corporal and four private soldiers. 
This was a cavalry picket reserve, and to 
them was committed the duty of preventing 
the passage along the road of any and every 
one who might attempt to go through the 
lines in either direction. This road led from 
Winchester to Strasburg in the Valley of Vir- 
ginia, and ran nearly parallel to the great Val- 
ley Turnpike, so well known as the ''Great 
Army Highway." 

At the time of our look at this reserve sta- 
tion it is a little after daylight. The opera- 



14 hi:roks and spies oi^ the: civiiy war. 

tion of frying the bacon rations is for the 
moment neglected, as the sergeant calls at- 
tention to the approach of two men on horse- 
back coming slow^ly from the direction of 
Winchester, where General Banks was en- 
camped with the Union army. Lieutenant 
Marr took up his glass and soon observed 
that one of the two was of his picket post 
men, and that the other was dressed in blue 
and was evidently a "Yankee." He ordered 
his squad to mount and draw up along the 
roadside. 

Soon the two came up to the lieutenant, 
when Private John Mason, the picket, after 
saluting his commanding officer, explained 
that the man w^ith him had come up boldly 
to within haiHng distance of him and his com- 
rade, and been challenged, made to dismount 
and surrender, as he could not give the coun- 
tersign, and that he now turned him over a 
prisoner. Lieutenant Marr told the prisoner 
to give an account of himself and why he was 
found so near the Southern lines. 

The captive said that he wished to be sent 
on to the camp of Gen. Turner Ashby, and to 
him alone would he state the cause of his 
voluntary surrender to the picket guard. 

As the man was evidently perfectly cool 
and self-possessed, and would not talk for the 
enlightenment of the lieutenant, he was or- 



THE KSCArE. 15- 

dered to dismount from his fine roan horse 
and to give up any weapons he might have. 
To the surprise of the squad, he handed over 
not only a fine sabre, but from the ample 
breast of his overcoat a pair of beautiful 
ivory-handled, silver-plated revolvers, that 
made the eyes as Avell as the mouths of the 
men water. Finding that though he was not 
compelled to talk, yet that he must make a 
complete showing of all his worldly belong- 
ings, he took fromi the roll behind his saddle 
a large package containing medicines and sur- 
gical instruments, which he asked to be al- 
lowed to turn over to General Ashby; and 
followed up his request by the offer of his 
canteen of real brandy and a well-filled purse 
to the custody of the officer. These last 
items quite confirmed Lieutenant Marr in his 
purpose to treat the man kindly and gently. 

A few hours later the relief arrived, and 
Marr, with his men and the mysterious 
stranger, started up toward General Ashby's 
camp. AitQr a march of three miles, the 
camp of the regimental reserve was reached. 
Lieutenant Marr sent his sergeant, with all 
but one of the men, to camp. Taking with 
him Private Mason and the prisoner, he sent 
to the tent of the colonel in command and 
asked permission to take the prisoner to Gen- 
eral Ashby. An order to this intent was 



1 6 he;roe:s and spies o^ the civil war. 

handed him, when he, wdth Mason as guard, 
headed with their prisoner up the Vahey, and 
after a ride of two hours reached Ashby's 
headquarters, and dismounting was soon 
heard, and was ordered to bring in his prison- 
er. This was done, and the few who were 
permitted to be present at that meeting will 
ever remember it. General x\shby stood fac- 
ing the entrance to the tent — a man seen 
once, never to be forgotten. In stature five 
feet ten inches, thick, long black hair; a 
ruddy face, nearly covered with a long flow- 
ing beard of black, which almost hid his bust, 
and eyes that had at some times the gentle 
expression of a girl, while when aroused or 
excited they flashed with a power that all 
about him felt. He was a cavalier who had 
the gentlest of voices when calm, yet in bat- 
tle no sound was able to drown his com- 
mands. 

The prisoner came forward with a light 
step and a perfectly serene and rather smil- 
ing face. He came up to and saluted Gen- 
eral Ashby. The prisoner was a man not 
over five feet seven inches high, of sHght, 
sinewy figure, grey eyes, light, close cut hair, 
dark brown mustache and Vandyke beard. 
His manner was quick and nervous, his voice, 
as well as his whole appearance, showed him 
to be a foreigner, while his English was so 



THE ESCAPi:. 17 

completely and correctly mastered that, but 
for the Italian mellowness of his gutturals, 
he could have been taken for an Englishman. 
The two men looked at each other intently 
for a moment in silence, broken by General 
Ashby saying in rather a gentle, pitying tone, 
''please proceed to give an account of your- 
self." The prisoner said : ''My name is Con- 
tre; I am a son of General Contre, of Italy. 
I came over to the United States out of a 
spirit of adventure and because I had a love 
affair that made it desirable that I should see 
other countries. I tired of New York and of 
travels in the East, and being a surgeon by 
profession, I came on to Washington and se- 
cured a commission as an assistant surgeon 
in the U. S. Army. See, I have the insignia 
of that rank" — showing the surgeon's badge 
as he spoke. "I had little difficulty in get- 
ting into the Federal Army with the letters 
I had from home, but after getting there I 
found that my sympathies were wholly with 
the South. So strong did this become that 
I was not as guarded as I should have been, 
— possibly said more than I should have,— 
and soon I was summoned to the general, 
who, in the presence of his staff and several 
surgeons, who were evidently posted as to 
the proposed interview (and were there, I 
thought, to enjoy my humihation), severely 



1 8 HKROKS AND SPIES OF THK CIVIL WAR. 

reprimanded me, and told me that if I was 
so much in love with the rebels I ought to 
go to their camp and offer them my valuable 
services. I made the best defense that I 
could, and declared that as long as I bore 
the commission and wore the uniform of the 
Union, I would be true to both; but as a 
foreigner I could not feel that devotion to the 
flag of the Union that was so properly felt 
by the people of the North, who were as just- 
ly proud of their country, as I was of mine. 
This self humihation did not have the effect 
I had hoped it would, as the general ordered 
me put under arrest and said that he would 
send on a report that would bring me before 
a court-martial, and, he added, that he hoped 
I would be shot. 

"This result was so harsh that I was ex- 
tremely chagrined and mad all through. I 
was marched off to a small house near the 
building, used as a hospital, and a sentinel 
was placed before the door. To escape or 
die was then and there determined on, cost 
what it might. I waited as quietly as I could 
until the first guard was relieved and the sec- 
ond got tired, and then when I saw he had 
his face turned from me, I slid out of the 
door quietly and slipped off to the stable 
where the surgeon's horses were kept. For- 
tunately for me, one of the surgeons of the 



THE ESCAPE. 19 

hospital had ordered that his horse should be 
ready at eleven o'clock that night, as he had 
to go to Charlestown, nearly thirty miles 
north of Winchester. His servant had, as I 
afterwards learned, put the doctor's case, pis- 
tols, and canteen of brandy upon the saddle. 
An orderly was holding the bridle, and I saw 
that he mistook me for his superior, for 
whom he was waiting. I just said,' all right, 
you wait here until I see Captain Emmett 
[this was the name of a well-known guard 
oflicer] and then be ready to go with me.' 
This took the orderly back to the stable in 
surprise, and gave rpe the time I wanted. I 
got into the saddle leisurely and came slowly 
through Winchester. When near the edge 
of the town, I found several horses hitched 
to a yard fence. They were all fine horses 
and well equipped, whose riders were having 
a jolly time at a large residence near by. I 
noticed a nice sabre hanging from the saddle 
of one horse, and, as I am a good swordsman, 
I took it along with me. 

"I sought now to escape in earnest, and 
knowing that there was a rnountain road to 
the west of the great Valley Turnpike that 
by a longer route led to the Southern hnes, 
I made for and found that road. I pressed 
quietly along for five or six miles until I saw 
a camp in the woods, which I knew to be the 



20 HE:R0ES and spies 01^ THK CIVIL WAR. 

Federal outpost reserve. I made a detour 
into the woods long enough to clear the 
sound of the camp, and bearmg around I 
came out south of it. But there was yet 
another risk for me — that was the Federal 
picket or outlook. He would of course be 
looking south for trouble, but if there should 
be two of them a dash by would be danger- 
ous, as those fellows had loaded guns. I did 
want to escape, but did not want to kill a 
poor fellow just because he w^as m my way, 
so I tried another detour to get around the 
station, and had just succeeded w^hen I heard 
a clatter of horses' feet in the rear, and then 
I knew I was not to get off so easily. I put 
spurs to my horse, which, though tired, was 
a good one, and found that while I was fairly 
flying, a few riders seemed rather to have 
gained upon me. My game was flight as 
long as my horse would last. I put him to 
the top of his speed, and could in a little while 
perceive that not more than two had gained 
upon me, but they had gained greatly. 
Another spurt, and over so rough a road that 
I expected to break my neck, and I found 
that one of the foremost horsemen was much 
closer, though the other was farther back. 

''Another dash of a mile and I found that 
my horse had done his best, and that if still 
pursued I must kill or be killed. Captured 



THE ESCAPE. 21 

I would not be ! I could now only hear the 
hoof-beats of one horse, whose bold rider 
was bent upon my scalp. I could discern him 
coming like mad ! I saw a large tree near 
the road side, and I placed it as well as possi- 
ble between the trooper and myself, and not 
a moment too soon, as he began to call out 
'halt !' and not seeing or hearing me, he fired. 
I knew that he was an officer as soon as he 
had discharged his pistol, and then I drew 
out my sabre and waited. He came within 
ten feet of me before he saw me, drew his 
sabre as he checked his horse, and ordered 
me to surrender, making a lunge at my 
breast, which I parried. He was hot, and 
bent on killing me, so I must disable him, 
and this within a minute or less, as his men 
would soon come up. I sent his sabre flying 
from his grasp into the mud, and, as he was 
no swordsman, soon had him flat on his back 
in the road. I took his horse by the bridle, 
turned his head in the direction from which 
he had come, gave him a prick with the sabre 
and started him back, and then made such 
good time that I heard no more of him or his 
followers. I came towards your pickets, and 
after a ride of a few miles surrendered to 
them. I now wish to get an appointment as 
assistant surgeon in the Confederate Army, 
or, if not that, an appointmicnt in the line or 



22 HE:rOES and SPIE;S O^ the civil WAR. 

the staff of some general officer, so that I can 
avenge my own wrongs w^hile I fight for the 
South." 

General Ashby said, ''Mr. Contre, are yoii 
such a swordsman that you could unhorse a 
foe such as you have described, and are you 
willing to give me a test of your swordsman- 
ship?" 

''Certainly; I will be too glad to show you 
that no man in your army can touch me with 
his sabre. But, stay. In order to convince 
you at once, bring in two or three of your 
best men with the sabre ; I will not hurt them 
and they cannot touch me with their sabres.'' 

General Ashby called for two of his best 
men ; said he would not so underestimate the 
skill of his men as to set three against one; 
went over to the open in the rear of his tent, 
and Contre faced the two, bowed and stood 
on guard to encourage the two men. 

"I am not to harm you," he said, and "you 
are to try your best to hurt me, even kill me 
if you can." 

Then, whirling his sabre like a flash he sent 
that of one of the men from his grasp, ten 
feet away; at the same time he parried the 
thrust of the other; then stepped back and 
asked his adversaries to make ready, and they 
came at him again^ — two men nearly twice his 
size and warmed up, with the resolve to show 



THE ESCAPE. 23 

him "what Confeds could do." A little dis- 
tance apart, now on either side, or in front, 
they cut, slashed, lunged and thrust, but in 
vain. Quietly, and seemingly without any 
exertion, he stood, while his sabre whirled 
about him like a flashing shield of sparkling 
steel. Soon the two men were tired out with 
their labor, and drew back, admitting that 
they were not in the contest. 

General Ashby said: "I am satisfied, and 
will send you on to Gen. Stonewall Jackson. 
Lieutenant Marr, you can detail such guard 
as you wish to report to General Jackson with 
Contre. Treat him kindly and protect him 
from insult, and report on your return." 

Lieutenant Marr told Contre to mount; 
and with the prisoner between him and Pri- 
vate Mason started for headquarters. 

Private Acker, one of the two worn-out 
contestants with Contre, was laughed at 
heartily by all his companions as he approach- 
ed the fire b}" which they were huddled. 
"You may laugh at me, boys, but if all the 
d — n Yankees can handle their sabres like 
that dried-up little cuss, they can take Rich- 
mond in a week, for all we can do fighting 
themi with cold steel. D — n the Yank, you 
might as well butt your head against a stone 
wall to hurt him, as to cut at him with a 



24 HKR0E:S and SPI£;S of the civil. WAR. 

sabre ! None of the rest of you asked to 
take a hand with him, I notice." 

Late that evening, Lieutenant Marr, with 
his guard and prisoner, reached General 
Jackson's headquarters. He went forward, 
stated his mission to the officer in charge of 
the couriers, and was soon told that the Gen- 
eral would see him at once. 

Lieutenant Marr had borne orders to and 
from General Jackson, and knew him well. 
On one occasion he had been sent by General 
Ashby to see General Jackson in Staunton at 
a hotel, and ask for orders. He had on ar- 
rival been directed to the door of a room as 
the one the General was sleeping in. He 
knocked and heard a "who's there?" He re- 
pHed, "A messenger from General Ashby." 
The response came quckly, ''come in." He 
tried the door and found it locked. x\gain 
the voice called, ''come in." He said meekly, 
"the door is fastened, sir." "No, it is not, 
come in." The Lieutenant threw his weight 
against the door, which only creaked; then 
he heard the General cross the room in his 
bare feet, and unlock the door. He w^aited 
for him to get under cover, and then entered 
cap in hand, and was about to state his mis- 
sion, when the General stopped him to say, 
"I hope you will excuse me for being so sure 
it w^as not locked, as you were entirely right 



THE ESCAPE. 25 

in the matter, sir." Such attention to the 
feehngs and rights of others, even of sub- 
ordinates, was characteristic of that great 
man. 

Lieutenant Marr beckoned to Contre and 
led him, followed by the guard, into the pres- 
ence of the General, who heard the officer's 
statement, that General Ashby had sent him. 
The Lieutenant then moved aside, leaving 
Contre confronting the man whose name 
would in the future be known all over the 
world. Contre was told to make his state- 
ment, which he did, very much as he had 
done to General Ashby. At the close of it 
General Jackson said, "I will refer your case, 
through the General of the Army, to the Gov- 
ernment, and in the meantime you must not 
go beyond my camp. I will give you orders 
upon the commissary and quartermaster for 
supplies and rations until further orders. 
For the present I will turn you over to the 
care of the staff surgeon. Arms will not be 
allowed you, and you will learn the will of 
the War Department as soon as I receive 
orders. Adjutant, see that these orders are 
duly given." 

As soon as they had passed the guard, 
Contre turned to Lieutenant Marr and said, 
"That is a great man, that General Jackson; 
I just felt that he knew all I was going to say 



26 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIE WAR. 

before I said a word. And now, Lieutenant, 
I never saw you until to-day, but I hate to 
part with 3'^ou, as I feel that you are a gener- 
ous friend." 

Indeed, Marr felt a kind of pity when he 
thought of the lonely condition of this man, 
thousands of miles from his native Italy; re- 
garded as a traitor by one army and under 
the ban of suspicion with the other ; without 
a home or friend on the whole continent of 
America. 

Lieutenant Marr found the w^ay to the sur- 
geon's headquarters, and after explaining 
that General Jackson had commanded that 
Contre should be left there, he parted with 
him, with sincere pity for the young man, 
who looked so like a boy, and yet who pos- 
sessed so much self-reliance, and who was so 
self-contained. After the lapse of two weeks 
an answer came to the general commanding, 
saying that the Department had declined to 
permit Contre to enter the service in any 
capacity ; that he should not remain with the 
army, or go nearer than twenty miles of any 
Confederate outpost, and that this order 
should be sent to all officers in command of 
the forces in the field. Otherwise, Contre 
was to be free to go where he pleased. 

He was greatly distressed, and wept be- 
cause he was not allowed to go to the front 



THE ESCAPE. 27 

and attest his genuine allegiance to his new 
friends. He went to the town of Wood- 
stock, Shenandoah County, in the Valley, and 
secured board with a German family, with 
who n he could converse as fluently as any 
German. Indeed, while at the surgeon's 
camo it had been found that he spoke Ger- 
man, Italian, French, and Spanish, as well as 
English, while his attainments as a surgeon 
and swordsman were fully proved. As only 
one old surgeon was left in the town who had 
not entered the army, Contre let it be known 
that he w^ould attend the sick, and in a short 
time had as much practice as he wanted. For 
many months he observed his parole and 
would vibrate up and down the valley, as the 
army moved, keeping up the twenty-mile re- 
quirement. He was often cautioned that he 
would fall into the hands of the Union troops, 
but would laugh at the idea of capture. 

These swayings back and forth of the op- 
posing armies became so frequent, he said, 
that such repeated movings were too bad for 
him, and that as he had found a cave in the 
mountain, only five miles ofif, where he could 
hide so that the whole Federal Army could 
not find him, he had made it a comfortable! 
retreat. This life went on for a few months^' 
until, through the influence of the Member 
of Congress from that district, he succeeded 



28 HEROKS AND SPIES OE THE CIVIL WAR. 

in getting a commission as assistant surgeon 
in the Confederate Army. He beamed with 
delight when this came ; he kissed it and car- 
ried on with such childlike enthusiasm that 
an old soldier said that it was equal to a 
monkey show, and that he could only make 
such a fool of himself on getting a discharge 
from the army. Surgeon Contre was at- 
tached to the army in the Valley. 



CHAPTER 11. 

ope;rations in the; vai^ley. 

General Jackson, with the bulk of his army, 
made a raid into West Virginia leaving Major 
Myers, '^ known as the ''Shenandoah Myers," 
in command of a small squadron of cavalry, 
a lot of dismounts, ''Company Q," and such 
stragglers as could be scraped up. Major 
Myers secured the detail of Lieutenant Marr 
to help him organize his mongrel forces, and 
of Assistant Surgeon Contre, who asked to 
remain in the Valley, to be as near Marr as 
possible. 

Major Myers, fearing that the raid in West 
Virginia would, if successful, ecHpse a quiet 
defense of the Valley, determined to move 
down to Fisher's Hill, four miles from Stras- 
burg and about twenty from Winchester, and 
there try to bring the Federal cavalry to fol- 
low his scouts up through the narrow defile 

*Major Myers was a Pennsylvanian, a furnace owner. He 
died near New Market, Va, 



30 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

over the high, rocky causeway which winds 
through the sharp rocks and dense cedars 
up from the river to the high plain above. 

He estabHshed his quarters at Woodstock, 
and moved his little army of sixty cavalry and 
'seventy dismounts, with all kinds of arms, to 
ambuscade the foe in the narrow, gloomy de- 
file. In this plan he seemed to be most for- 
tunate, for hardly had he placed his impro- 
vised infantry in hiding before the outlook 
from the high hill-top saw a body of cavalry 
coming from the direction of Winchester, 
twenty miles north. This elated Major My- 
ers, who was never so happy as when in a 
fight. He sent his brother, Captain Myers, 
with the cavalry down the causeway to draw 
on the enemy and decoy them to follow 
through the defile, while Capt Neff would 
command the infantry in ambush; and by 
special favor he consented that his own staff, 
consisting of Lieutenant Marr and Assistant 
Surgeon Contre, might take part with the 
infantry in the ambush, though the two had 
only a pistol and sabre each. A large body 
of the Union forces — General ElHott's cav- 
alry — came in sight, pursuing the little 
squadron of Captain Myers, who was a jolly, 
rollicking soldier, who always laughed at a 
battle as boys do in a ball game. He fell 
back, skirmishing as he retreated, and was 



OPERATIONS IN THE VALLEY. 3 1 

Steadily pursued, and when about a mile from 
the defile, a heavy charge being made upon 
him as if to cut him off, he retreated with 
more haste and came back in a sharp trot past 
the ambuscade, closely followed by a dash- 
ing head of the column of the Federal cav- 
alry. The order was for the infantry not to 
fire until at least a hundred had passed up 
the gorge, and then to open fire and cut that 
many off; but owing to the excitement of 
Doctor Contre, who was at the side of Lieu- 
tenant Marr, he first fired, and a little be- 
fore the order to fire was passed. In an in- 
stant there was a sheet of flame, and a score 
of men and horses went down in the narrow 
road, while some in desperation went over 
the steep chff on the lower side of the road. 
The head of the column, or what was left of 
it, tried to turn back, only to find the road 
blocked by fallen horses and men, and them- 
selves to be shot by the infantry behind the 
bushes. 

Contre was like an enraged animal, and 
killed three troopers with his own pistol, and 
then stood shouting for the men to kill. A 
few^ prisoners were taken, and many were 
killed and woimded. When the Federals re- 
treated to the valley below, and then took 
their stand about two miles off, but in sight. 
Major Myers ordered his men to hold the 



32 HEROKS AND SPIES OE THE CIVIE WAR. 

hill until night and then retreat to Wood- 
stock, and called Lieutenant Marr and Sur- 
geon Centre to return with him to Wood- 
stock, from which place two wagons with ra- 
tions were to come and meet the men in their 
retreat. As the Major and his grand staff 
of two officers had got half way to Wood- 
stock, in turning a sharp bend through a 
deep cut in the hillside, they saw right be- 
fore them the head of a column of Yankee 
cavalry. There was no time for deliberation. 
Fortunately the surprise was mutual, for it 
was a minute before the charge was sounded 
and begun, but that minute was enough. 
The Major and his staff, three in all, did not 
wait for orders or results, but dashed into 
the deep woods down the hill towards the 
Shenandoah River, only a mile or two away. 
Bullets followed them hotly, and if no firing 
had been done, but a prompt pursuit instead, 
all three must have been killed or captured. 
As it was, the firing notified the ambuscading 
Confeds that there was trouble in their rear. 
It was for that plan to be worked out that 
General Elliott had waited and followed Cap- 
tain Myers slowly. This was the truth. 
General Elliott had sent out a brigade to pass 
west of Strasburg and to intersect the Valley 
Pike at Woodstock, well in the Confederate 
rear; this succeeded, as he with his larger 



OPKRx\TlONS IN the: VAIvLEY. 33 

force had come slowly up the main road tow- 
ards Strasburg, which he reached in time to 
fall into the ambush before his flanking party 
could reach Woodstock and move down to 
take the Confederates in the rear, at Fisher's 
Hill, according to his concerted plan. It is 
generally the case in flank movem.ents of this 
kind that one or the other of the parts or 
columns gets to the meeting point too late to 
accomplish much. 

The Confederates who had taken part in 
the battle at Fisher's Hill, having heard the 
firing of the Union cavalry at the Major and 
his miniature stafT, took the hint and re- 
treated to the river, where they forded out 
to a w^ooded island which had already been 
reached by the Major and his staff. No pur- 
suit being made, a man was sent up a tall tree 
to observe, as a good view of the Valley be- 
low Strasburg could be had from that vant- 
age. As the rear of General Elliotf s column 
could be seen returning towards Winchester, 
the Major called up his forces and moved 
back to the mainland; crossed over to the 
Valley Pike and marched to Woodstock, to 
find that the Federal flanking party had cap- 
tured and burned his supplies at that place, 
and following the wagons with rations down 
towards Fisher's Hill, had burned them, and 
after such complete success they had found 



34 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIE WAR. 

a negro of whom they sought to learn the 
extent of the force at Fisher's Hill. In his 
attempt to give the information sought, be- 
ing badly scared and so inchned to tell as 
much as possible that would be valued, he 
said that the troops down there were mov- 
ing into the Valley from Richmond. Upon 
this vague guess or big-eyed statement, the 
ofihcer in command of the Federal flanking 
party concluded that he had better retreat 
by the same road that he had come. This he 
did and went some ten miles around to the 
west of Strasburg, when he could have gone 
by a three-mile march through Strasburg and 
joined General Elliott. 

The loss to the Union cavalry by the am- 
buscade was about fifteen killed and a score 
or two wounded, while two slight wounds 
was all the damage inflicted on the Johnny 
Rebs, outside of ^he destruction of their 
supplies. 

That night, after the pickets were ra- 
tioned and posted, the people brought out 
from their scanty supplies food to the little 
army; after which the boys, wearied and 
sore, lay down where they could rest for 
marches or battles that a soldier's fortune 
might bring on the morrow. No man sleeps 
more soundly or is less disturbed by dreams 
or fears than the soldier after a day of hard 



OPERATIONS IN THE VALI<EY. 35 

marching or stubborn battle. His faith is 
in God and his commanding general, and as 
he feels no responsibility, he is not disturbed 
by the sense of care or anxiety which so often 
prevents sleep when one has a soft bed and 
no soldier calls to answer. 

Now if the brave Major Myers loved any 
one thing, after his family, more than a skir- 
mish, it was a well-cooked meal ; or, if circum- 
stances stood in the way of the cooking, 
then the meal as it could be had. He was 
always ready and anxious to fight or eat. On 
this night a store-keeper, the only one left 
in this war-impoverished place, invited the 
Major to make his quarters in the store, 
which consisted of a room as bare of goods 
as the street. As there was a counter and a 
dry floor to sleep on, and a stove for heating, 
on which a ration could be cooked, it suited 
the Major well, especially as one of the citi- 
zens brought him a jug of milk, a lot of fresh 
sausage and enough bread for a dozen men. 
The Major not only jumped at this good for- 
tune, but offered a toast — ''Here's to the 
foremost citizen of Woodstock, for he was 
the first to bring us a supper/' 

In addition to the staff — consisting of 
Lieutenant Marr and Assistant Surgeon 
Contre — Captain Myers, Mr. Charles Wag- 
ner, of Maryland, and one or two others were 



36 HEROKS AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

asked to share the Alajor's quarters and sup- 
per. While eating to the full had made most 
of these tired men betake themselves to 
^leep, it seemed not to have that effect upon 
at least two of them — Lieutenant Marr and 
Surgeon Contre. There was some strange 
fascination felt by the Lieutenant for the 
Itahan, and yet he not only did not like him, 
but could not answer his own inquiry why 
he did not. He liked to hear him talk, and as 
constantly as possible practiced the sabre 
exercise with him. Contre sought the com- 
panionship of Marr, would teach him by the 
hour, and seemed never to tire of his pres- 
ence. 

On this night the Lieutenant, being near 
Contre, said to him : 

"I want to know if you feel, after killing 
the three men to-day, that it was just exactly 
the thing for you to do, as you could hardly 
be said to be in the line of duty in killing 
men, while your position in the army calls 
only for healing and curing; and then to- 
\{ day you were a volunteer in the fullest sense. 
I ask whether you feel any compunction (as 
I do, a man in the direct line of duty, when 
it has been my ill fortune, as I consider it) 
to have killed a fellow man even in the heat 
of battle?" 



0PE:RATI0NS in THI: VALLieY. 37 

"Lieutenant," answered Centre, "nothing 
pleases me so much as to kill a Yankee, and 
I found to-day that I not only loved surgery, 
but enjoyed more the making of wounds 
than the healing of them. No, I do not mind 
killing those men this morning — am only 
sorry that I could not destroy them all with 
my own hand." 

"On my part," returned Marr, "I cannot 
bear to think of the first man I ever shot; 
am thankful that I was compelled to shoot 
him, and that he fairly forfeited his life by 
his base conduct." 

"Well," said Contre, "while I cannot un- 
derstand your tenderness, I would like to 
hear about that fellow you plugged and now 
cry over." 

"I do not say that I cry over it, but as I 
was taught to believe in the Christian re- 
ligion and the Bible, I know that the taking 
of Hfe, especially human life, is a very serious 
act, a grave act; and if not fully justifiable, 
a criminal act as well. Contre, do you be- 
lieve that the Bible contains the word of 
God?" asked Marr, as he gazed in the dim 
light at the doctor, like a man who was hun- 
gry for an answer to a question upon which 
much depended. 

The Doctor hesitated for a while, and then 
answered: "I do not believe it as you do. 



3^ heroe:s and spies oe thk civie war. 

I admire it, as you all say in English, but it 
has no influence over me or my actions, and 
hence does not arraign me for them." 

The Lieutenant mused in silence for a min- 
ute, when the barrier between Contre and 
him.self became clear to his mind. He be- 
lieved in God and conscience, while this man 
did not. This was the gulf that made abso- 
lute confidence impossible, knowing which 
he could better gauge the Doctor and under- 
stand his secret repugnance to him, not- 
withstanding the latter's exuberant devotion. 

'Xieutenant," said Contre, "surely you are 
not going to sleep without teUing me about 
the first bad case, as the doctors say — I 
mean the fellow you had to kill." 

"No, Contre," said Marr, "I will tell you, 
though I never think of it without regret 
and never will. It was this way: We had 
been having a sharp little fight and had driven 
in the Yankee cavalry. The enemy had 
thrown out an infantry skirmish line in their 
and our front, and they were advanced, as 
I noticed, much farther from the line of bat- 
tle they had formed than I ever saw on any 
other occasion. General Stuart came up to 
our regiment and was much interested in 
watching the enemy. Presently, turning to 
the colonel, he motioned him nearer, said 
something I did not hear, and then turning 



OPERATIONS IN THE VALEEY. 39 

towards my company, in front of which he 
happened to be, and addressing me, he said, 
'Take your company and bring me those 
skirmishers.' This was a dangerous duty, 
as we had not only the skirmish Hne to deal 
with, but that other darker and heavier Hne 
of battle behind them. But soldiers are not 
to question at all, or even to think too much ; 
so I gave the needed orders to forward and 
deploy, first to trot sharply; and as soon as 
the ground was half passed, the charge was 
given and away we went in pretty good line 
and in quick time, deploying as we went, so 
that each trooper could have his particular 
m.an to capture. As we approached they 
rallied right and left upon the central man, 
and executed beautifully the movement that 
brought three men together as 'guard against 
cavalry.' In a minute we were upon them 
and they had surrendered without a shot, 
though their officers were begging them to 
fire. I found that the man that I had come 
up to was the rallying center, and that three 
instead of one confronted me. I held my 
pistol towards them and ordered them to 
throw down their guns. Two of them obeyed, 
while the third grounded his, holding on to 
the barrel, but all held up their hands in sur- 
render. I was in the act of returning my 
pistol to the holster, when by a quick move- 



40 HKROKS AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

ment the fellow picked up his gun and, with- 
out stopping to aim, fired at me. In his haste, 
and owing to a slight turn of my horse, the 
f^ash and charge passed between my body 
and my horse's head. Without an instant's 
delay, as the pistol was yet in my hand, I fired 
at him. It being nearly dark, I could see 
the flash strike him in the breast. He fell 
dead; and as there was no time to lose, I 
motioned the other two men to run back to 
our line with the rest of their captured, which 
they did. Their troops retired, and I went 
forward a little later to see the poor fellow 
who had forfeited his life by perfidy, and yet 
whom I was sorry for killing." 

"Well, if that is all the sin with which you 
have to reproach yourself, Lieutenant," re- 
turned Contre, "you need not fear being 
kept out of your happy hunting grounds 
after the war is over. I think that you did 
the very best thing, except that you should 
have shot all three of the rascals and not 
have left the story incomplete. You are too 
like a woman, tender of others and hard on 
3^ourself; that is all wrong." 

"No, Contre, I am not wrong; man can- 
not create life or recall it, and he has no right 
to take it except as forced by duty to so- 
ciety. Now I remember that Lieut. Col. 
Thomas Marshall, Capt. Jack Eastham and 
Capt. Hillary Magruder, three of the brav- 



OPKRATIONS IN THE VAL]wE:y. 4 1 

est men I know in this army, were speaking 
with me about this unpleasant sensation at 
the recollection of having killed men in com- 
bat, even where it was 'kill or be killed,' and 
they agree with me. But it is now very late, 
and if we do not go to sleep the Major will 
soon want his breakfast." 

The next morning, when Lieutenant Marr 
was sitting alone and looking rather blue, the 
Doctor came up and said: ''Lieutenant, you 
seem rather despondent this morning, when 
you should be bright. Of course I do not 
wish to force myself into your confidence, 
but if I could help to drive away your clouds 
I would like to try and handle the job." 

"O, thank you, Doctor, but you can't help 
me in the least, though you may think differ- 
ently," answered Lieutenant Marr. "1 will 
tell you that I have not heard from my wife 
and child for many weeks, nor seen them for 
a year, and when not actively at work I get 
discouraged a little. I write, but it is rarely 
the case that my letters get through, and 
answers have a still harder time in getting to 
me; the last one I had was brought by a 
man from Harper's Ferry and delivered to 
our picket just as I was going the rounds of 
the pickets on my line, and I came up to the 
picket at the same time the man did bearing 
the letter for me. That was strange and 
wouldn't happen again in a year." 



42 HEROi:S AND SPI^S OOP TH^ CIVIL WAR. 

"But, Lieutenant," said Centre, *'if you are 
anxious and want to write to your wife and 
get an answer soon, you just put it up by this 
evening, and in a week I will get you an ans- 
wer. Just trust me, and I will see that your 
letter goes through and that the answer 
comes all right." 

"You are very kind, Doctor, but I am not 
willing that you should put yourself in danger 
or to inconvenience for me, and as the dis- 
tance is nearly one hundred miles, and be- 
yond the enemy's lines, you don't know the 
danger that may attend the fulfilment of your 
kind offer ; you may be kind and rash enough 
to attempt risk that would not be justified 
by the end to be accomplished." 

"You need not consider my risk; write 
your letter, and say in it that the answer is 
to be written at once and delivered to the 
person who hands your letter to the one for 
whom it is intended, and see if I don't man- 
age the rest for you, so that within ten days 
you will get an answer." 

"Doctor, if you will assure me that you 
will incur no risk in the matter, and let me 
bear the full cost, I will accept your offer and 
will go now and write, and will hand you the 
letter in an hour; and while I do not see how 
you can make good your word, I leave the 
how to you." 



OPERATIONS IN THE VAhlXY. 43 

"All right, I will take it to-night to a man 
who will convey it for me, and as he is under 
great obligations to me, there will be no 
expense." 

"Doctor, I accept your offer with thanks, 
and if we can both get permission to leave 
the camp, I would like you to take me to the 
cave you found near here." 

''I will take you at some other time, when 
we are nearer New Market, as it is easier to 
get to it from that place than from here." 

"Your time will suit me. I will see you 
to-night." 

The letter was written and handed to the 
Doctor, and in nine days Lieutenant Marr 
received a reply. "This is strange," he said 
to himself, "but I won't look a gift horse in 
the mouth." 

Extract from my wife's letter: 

"I have your letter dated at Woodstock, 
and the way I got it almost frightened me to 
death. This morning a regiment of Union 
cavalry passed through town, having come 
up from Harper's Ferry. They went up the 
Smithfield Road only a little way and stopped 
there. A little while later two Federals rode 
back and up to our house and knocked. 
Sarah invited them in; only one came; he 
asked to see me. When I heard that he 
wished to see me, remembering that many 



44 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIE WAR. 

arrests had been made lately, my strength 
just left me; but fortunately brother had 
come in an hour before, so I made him go 
down with me, though he was sick. The of- 
ficer, for such I found him to be, was very 
much of a gentleman, rose up, and handed 
me your letter. Seeing that I was so fright- 
ened, he said, 'Madam, I have been sent from 
Harper's Ferry to bring you this letter, and 
am ordered to say that if you wish to send a 
reply to your husband, and will have it writ- 
ten before 5 o'clock this evening, I will call 
for it, and that it will be delivered to him just 
exactly as you write it, and that if you wish 
at any time to send a letter to him, and will 
enclose it in an envelope addressed to the 
commanding officer at Harper's Ferry, it will 
be sent to him through our Hues without de- 
lay or inspection — on condition that it is ad- 
dressed to no one but your husband.' I 
thanked him; but what a strange thing it 
was to have a regiment of Union cavalry 
march up here to bring me a letter and take 
back the answer, waiting for me to write it. 
I remember your saying, so often used, Vait 
and see.' Our neighbors will be crazy to 
know what it all means. I am sure I can't 
tell. The officer said that all he knew was 
the order, which he had stated and obeyed.'* 
I say the same to the reader, "Wait and 
see. 



CHAPTER III. 

STRANG^: EXPERIENCES. 

A few days later, when the Major, with his 
command, had fallen back to Harrisonburg, 
he called Captain Eastham, Captain Myers, 
and Lieutenant Marr to consider a plan sug- 
gested by a scout just returned from Win- 
chester, where General Milroy was in com- 
mand, occupying the home of Mr. Lloyd 
Logan as headquarters. The suggestion was 
to make a raid so as to reach the neighbor- 
hood of Winchester at night, make a sudden 
dash with fifty mounted picked men, rush 
into the Logan house, seize General Milroy 
and bring him on as a hostage. There was a 
very minute plat, showing the approach that 
was selected, and giving the number and lo- 
cation of each picket or guard, not only 
around or in the town, but a diagram of the 
house showing the guard positions in the 
house itself. The scout was questioned as to 



46 HKROKS AND SPIKS Oi^ THK CIVIL WAR. 

all the particulars and every item of the pro- 
posed program v^as fully canvassed. After 
which, by unanimous vote, it was decided to 
ask the approval and permission of the com- 
manding general to make the raid. Just then 
Doctor Contre was heard without, and the 
Major said that as he had been for a time 
with the troops in Winchester, he might be 
able to add some valuable suggestions, and 
he was brought in. He was delighted with 
the plan, and said that he must be of the 
party, however large or small. As it might 
be some days before permission to make the 
attempt at capture could be had, the Doctor 
urged that the little force in the Valley be 
moved down nearer Winchester, so as to 
^ave time that would be spent in making a 
long march after the permit came. This was 
disapproved, on the ground that any advance 
might cause greater precautions to prevent 
attack. 

It was decided that a close study should 
be made, not only by the officers, but before 
the raid was made each man should be taug"ht 
and trained in the part he was to take in each 
and every step of the proceeding; and that 
two or more should be detailed for each 
duty, so that in the event of the death or 
woimding of one man, others would be 
posted in the duty expected of him. No 



STRANGE EXPKRIENCKS. 47 

better or more carefully concocted plan was 
ever laid, or more closely studied, and it was 
the object of the deepest concern for the 
next five days. Conversation upon the sub- 
ject, even between the officers who were in 
the secret, was disallowed. 

At the end of the fifth day permission to 
make the raid to Winchester reached Major 
Myers' headquarters. His little council was 
called, and it was determined to pick ten men, 
bmd them on oath to secrecy, explain to 
them the diagram of the Logan house, with- 
out showing them what house or in what 
town it was, and post each one thoroughly as 
to the part he was to perform. Capt. Jack- 
son Eastham was to command this house 
detail, while the work of shoeing the horses 
and getting ready arms and accoutrements 
was pushed vigorously. 

A scout was sent out to meet an agent in 
Winchester, who would let him know from 
a personal visit made that day to the Logan 
house whether any change had been made 
in the guard arrangements. As soon as the 
scout received information of any unusual 
change being made, or that all was quiet, he 
was to slip out and meet the raiding party 
at a point about fifteen miles south of Win- 
chester, so that it could then be determined 
whether to march on to Winchester or aban- 



48 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIL WAR. 

don the project, as the information might 
show to be best. 

Capt. John Myers was put in command of 
the cavalry; Captain Eastham of the house 
detail of twenty men ; while Surgeon Contre 
and Lieutenant Marr were to compose the 
staff of the Major and be ready to reheve the 
others if emergency required. Early in the 
morning, after the scout had been sent two 
days ahead, the execution of the desperate 
plan to enter a town surrounded by twenty 
thousand well-trained soldiers and carry off 
the Commanding General was begun. 

Such raids were becoming quite the fash- 
ion. Stuart was the great ranking raider; 
then Mosby; Capt. George Baylor and Gen- 
eral Imboden had each exemplified the bold- 
ness and dash of the Confederate cavalier, 
each having conducted to successful issue 
plans that for very boldness seemed impos- 
sible of conception, much less execution. 

Down in a hollow, under the shadow of a 
thick copse of pines, at night, the raiders 
waited the coming of the daring scout. The 
look-out heard his approach, gave and re- 
ceived answer to the signal agreed upon, and 
he Avas soon in conference with the officers, 
who were much chagrined to learn that the 
plan was evidently known, or that some at- 
tack was suspected from some quarter, as 



strange; kxpe:riencks. 49 

not only had all pickets and camp guards 
been doubled that day, but orders had been 
given the troops to sleep upon their arms; 
while a heavy detail had been made to so 
guard the Logan house as to make it impos- 
sible for any attack upon it to succeed. As 
the nearness of Baylor and Mosby made it 
possible that these unusual means had been 
adopted by General Milroy to preclude the 
possibility of capture by them, Major Myers 
attributed the precaution taken to that cause, 
and with a feeling of deep disappointment 
he ordered the little command to retrace its 
march, camped near Strasburg, and moved 
back to Harrisonburg the next day. 

As the command of Major Myers was only 
a temporary one, made up of fragments of 
several arms of the service, to protect the 
upper valley during General Jackson's ab- 
sence in other sections, an order was sent 
for the Major, Captain Myers, Captain East- 
ham, and Lieutenant Marr to rejoin their 
commands, while Surgeon Contre was order- 
ed to report to the Surgeon-in-Chief of the 
Army for duty, and thus by one of the 
constant changes of war, all but the sur- 
geon were called to the eastern section of 
Virginia to take their part in the horse 
and artillery army of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart. 
The battle of Cedar Mountain was fought, 



50 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

followed soon by that of Manassas, and 
the advance into Maryland by the Confeder- 
ate Army, and their capture of Harper's 
Ferry, with eleven thousand men and seventy 
pieces of cannon. The battle of Sharpsburg, 
or Antietam, concluded that movement, after 
w^hich Gen. Robert E. Lee re-crossed the Po- 
tomac, followed to that river slowly by Gen- 
eral McClellan. As the Confederate general 
was encumbered with many men too severely 
wounded to be moved across the river, a 
hospital was established, and a corps of sur- 
geons was detailed to remain and render the 
service needful in the condition existing. 
Among those thus detailed was Surgeon 
Contre. When this was made known to his 
former companions of the ''Myers army," as 
it was called by its own members, it was pre- 
dicted on all hands that Contre could not 
regulate his tongue so as to keep out of 
trouble. They were right, it seems, for in 
less than a week they heard that he had been 
arrested and thrown into prison for intem- 
perate and even abusive language about the 
officers and soldiers, indeed of every person 
and thing pertaining to the Union Army or 
the Union itself. No more was heard from 
him for two or three weeks, when, all unex- 
pectedly, he turned up at the camp of Col. 
Richard Dulany of the Seventh Virginia Cav- 



STRANGE KXP£:RIKNCES. 51 

airy, to which his old companions of the 
"Myers army" belonged. He was an inter- 
esting visitor, and told of his arrest for swear- 
ing at som.e of the Federal soldiers, who 
angered him greatly. He protested that as 
a Confederate surgeon left to attend the 
wounded he was not liable to arrest, but in 
spite of his protestations he was at first kept 
under guard, and then sent to Point Look- 
out, though not put into prison there, but 
kept under guard awaiting action by the War 
Department upon his case, which at last be- 
gan to look less trivial than he had at first 
thought. He said that the more he studied 
about it, the more strongly he was impressed 
with the idea that the best thing was not only 
to enter a plea of alibi, but to make that plea 
good by running off; so he took up the role 
in which he had such signal success before, 
and having overheard the countersign for 
that night, he boldly held five twenty-dollar 
gold pieces in his hand so that the guard 
could see them ; played them from one hand 
to the other, and when the guard passed a 
little nearer than he had before he said that 
he took that for a consent to accept the 
money and let him go. He slipped it to him, 
gave the countersign in passing the outer 
guards, and trudged on to Washington, 
where he went to the house of a friend very 



52 hkroe:s and spies of the civil war. 

near to the residence of the Italian Minister. 
This friend suppHed all his needs, kept him 
for nearly two weeks, and then sent him of¥ 
well provided with money. 

He started at night, and went up the Po- 
tomac River till near a ford, to which he had 
been directed, and to his horror learned that 
it was picketed by the Federals. It was too 
late to turn back, as he had been discovered ; 
nor was there much time for consideration. 
As there was only one man on the ppst, he 
determined to go up as close as he could and 
then dismount, surrender, and explain to the 
picket that he wanted to see his best girl on 
the other side, and that he would come back 
in one hour, bringing her back behind him. 
As a pledge of his honesty of purpose he of- 
fered to leave a hundred dollar bill w^ith the 
picket, and was to get it back when he re- 
turned on his way home. 

This plan went well with the picket, who 
eagerly took the money as a pledge, and told 
him to go ahead and be sure to get back in 
an hour, as he would be relieved and a new 
man would be on duty. He started in, but 
had gone only about half way across the shal- 
low ford when the ofificer in command of 
that part of the picket line came up to the 
post, and hearing a man riding through the 
shallow rocky bed of the river, supposed that 



STRANGE EXPERIENCES. 53 

the rider was coming towards them. He 
ordered the guard to halt him. The guard 
called upon him to halt, but as he did not 
heed, and it being too dark for the officer 
to see that the rider had been going towards 
the Virginia side of the river, he, after hsten- 
ing for a moment, found that the rider was 
going from them and had not halted. He 
naturally thought that the command to halt 
had caused him to turn back towards the 
Virginia shore, and so ordered the guard to 
lire. That quickened the pace of the doc- 
tor, and he knew that no amount of parleying 
could do him any good; besides which he 
had felt that the aim of the guard had been 
too true, and had cut through his upper left 
arm, making an ugly flesh wound. Several 
other shots were fired, but as he had gained 
the shore and was anxious to stay the loss 
of blood, he put the heavy trees on the bank 
of the stream between himself and the un- 
v>'elcome attentions of the guard, and rode 
for dear life towards Leesburg. His trials 
were not quite over yet, for as he rode rap- 
idly up the turnpike towards the town he 
heard from a clump of bushes the call ''Halt !" 
Then he felt that he must take the chances, 
and if it was a Federal force, do the best that 
circumstances would allow after he had sur- 
rendered. And if it chanced to be a Confed- 



54 HKROKS AND SPIi:S 01? rut CIVIL WAR. 

erate force he would explain his case and be 
sent to his friends. 

It turned out that Colonel Mosby was ex- 
ecuting one of his menaces at one section in 
order to strike another,which was so char- 
acteristic of the great partisan chieftain, and 
he had a picket out to avoid a rear lick. This 
was the obstacle against which the surgeon 
had run. He said he never before felt so 
much like singing a doxology such as he had 
heard in Confederate camp services. There 
was the Doctor, bandaged up, quite pale, but 
in other respects as good as new, and ''worth 
a dozen dead Indians," as the Major said. Of 
course he would not be fit for duty for a 
while, nor allowed to again enter the service 
or bear arms until his case had been made 
the subject of negotiations or he had been 
regularly exchanged. 

"Lieutenant Marr," said Contre, "if you 
will permit me, I would like to stay with you 
until I find out what I am to do, and will 
hustle around for good rations while I am 
with you, to pay you for your trouble, if you 
will take me in. I have money that will buy 
good things, if any are to be had in this 
country." 

"All right. Doctor," returned Marr, "I have 
only a place by my fire, and a share of what- 
ever we can get to offer, but to them you are 
welcome." 



CHAPTER IV. 

AS TOI.D BY THE CAMP-I^IRK. 

That night, after the duties of the day were 
all done and the sleeping men lay around the 
dying camp fires, the Doctor said: 

''Now, Lieutenant, I have told you all 
about my fooHsh talkativeness and escape, 
and I want to hear what adventures you have 
met with. While we sit here and smoke, tell 
me about anything unusual that has happen- 
ed since I saw you last." 

"I have met two or three little out-of-the- 
way experiences, but fear they are so far 
eclipsed by your own that you will not care 
to hear or take interest in them," answered 
Lieutenant Marr. 

"Now you can't get off that way; I am not 
going to be cheated out of the tale you can 
tell of those extras, so go on with the story," 
rejoined Contre. 

"If you will have them, I will give them 
to 3^ou for what they are worth," said Marr. 



56 he:roes and spies o:f the civii. war. 

''Ten days before the second Manassas, Gen- 
eral Stuart sent me up to a place called Wa- 
terloo Bridge, across the Upper Rappahan- 
nock River, with my company, with instruc- 
tions to hold that bridge while I had a man 
left. This was all easy enough as long as 
nothing but a weak picket force held the 
other end, but when a regiment of Federal 
infantry were seen heading for it, there 
seemed every chance of not bringing oft any 
live men. As soon as I got to the post at 
the south end of the bridge, I sent a detail of 
men back to a farm house on the hill and 
m.ade them bring down the wagons and carts 
which was done, and with a few shovels we 
began to throw up dirt just as fast as the 
shovels could be worked. This, with some 
logs and a few rails, enabled us to make up 
a nice breast-work, with pits in its rear. In 
the meantime we were fighting the pickets 
and using every chip or sod that would help 
our defense; we finished none too soon, as 
in a minute we were notified that quite a 
number of folks wanted not only one, but 
both ends of that bridge, as a hot volley was 
fired at us ; but thanks to our works, the fire 
proved nearly harmless. It was followed by 
five men bearing pots of burning pitch or 
oil. So sudden was the attempt that they 
got almost to the middle of the bridge be- 



AS TOLD BY the: CAMP-FIRE. 57 

fore we made out their purpose; but when 
we did I ordered ten men to fire, and only 
one of their poor fehows ran back, and he 
was badly wounded. Another, and then a 
third of' these foolish efforts were made, be- 
fore the fool in command over there realized 
that he could not burn a wet bridge in easy 
range of sixty of the best riflemen in the 
Confederate Army. 

"If he had charged, of course we, with our 
little squad, would have been killed or swept 
away; but he relied upon shooting his am- 
munition into our old carts and earthworks, 
till a courier came up at a rapid gate, and in- 
stantly I saw that they were falling back. 
The fact was that Company A of our Seventh 
had captured the ford at the Fauquier 
Springs and turned the flank of the party in 
our front, which took away all their desire 
for the 'Waterloo Bridge.' 

"The other occasion, or incident, was after 
General Jackson, with sixteen thousand men, 
inclusive of General Stuart's cavalry and the 
horse artillery, had captured Manassas in the 
rear of General Pope, which took place at 
daybreak after a long forced march. I re- 
ceived an order from Colonel Dulaney to re- 
port with one hundred men to General 
Stuart, and was informed by our adjutant 
that General Jackson had sent an order to 



58 Hi:ROKS AND SPIES OF THIS CIVIL WAR. 

General Stuart, asking for an 'officer who 
did not use liquor at all.' General Stuart 
sent the order to our brigadier, who sent it 
to Colonel Dulaney. He named me in his 
order, and if the same requirement had been 
exacted as to the men of the detail, it could 
not have been obeyed, as very few soldiers 
declined liquor if shoved at them. 

''I called out the men; found out where 
General Jackson was, and told him why I 
came. 

'' 'Do you ever use Hquor?' he said. 

" 'No,' I answered. 

" 'Not under any circumstances?' he asked. 

"I answered that if to keep sober was what 
he wanted, I could fill the bill. He mounted, 
told me to follow him, and rode a few hun- 
dred yards from where his staff were huddled 
around the fire, then halted and pointed to 
a large warehouse, saying: "You see that 
large building? In it is stored a very large 
quantity of liquors. You take your command 
there, take as many of the prisoners as you 
need; make them roll barrels of bread down 
to that point of the railroad crossing, so that 
my men can get bread, and then destroy 
every drop of the liquor. No man is to have 
a particle; this order is of the first import- 
ance, as I fear that Hquor more than Gen- 
eral Pope's army.' 



AS TOI<D BY the: CAMP.-FIRK. 5^ 

" 'I will execute your order,' I said, and 
saluted. 

"He started to ride back, when I called 
out, 'General, suppose that some officer of 
high rank should arrest me in order to get 
^t the liquor.' 

"He looked at me with a serious earnest- 
ness I shall never forget, and said, 'You are 
not subject to arrest to-day, except upon my 
written order; now do your duty.' 

"I marched up to the warehouse, which I 
found full of valuable stores and hospital sup- 
plies, cordials, brandy, and fruit of all kinds, 
as well as canned m^eats and vegetables, with 
jelHes and wines almost without limit. A lot 
of prisoners, under guard, were put to moving 
the bread and eatables down to the place des- 
ignated by the General. Five men were sta- 
tioned at each of the large doors, with orders 
neither to enter nor permit any one else to 
enter the warehouse, no matter who he might 
be. Everything went on quietly for a while, 
though I was very uneasy in view of the 
great temptation of the men who were de- 
tailed to spill the liquor through the floor of 
the house. After a few hours I was called to 
one of the doors by the corporal in charge 
there. I found a brigadier general, with his 
staff, on their horses and dignity, feehng 
very much offended because my men had 



60 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIL WAR. 

refused them permission to enter, or bring 
them the hquor demanded. I told them of 
my orders, and that it was impossible to ac- 
commodate them, but that I would give them 
any eatables that the building contained. 
At this the general raved, and swore that he 
would have the liquor or die ! I told him that 
he could not have the liquor, and that if he 
tried to force his way in he would die very 
soon. O, but he was hot then ! Asked my 
name, rank, and regiment, all of which I gave 
him with due meekness. 

''He then said, 'I will arrest you for your 
conduct to a superior officer !' He turned to 
his staff as if he would dismount to make the 
threat good. 

''I ordered my men to level their rifles and 
make ready. Then he tried coaxing, but 
made no headway, and soon got mad again. 

''I seriously expected to have to disable 
them, when I saw Gen. A. P. Hill galloping 
toward the warehouse. He came up, and I 
told him that General Jackson had put me 
there, and of my orders. He turned to the 
brigadier and spoke very sharply, upon which 
the fellow, with his staff, rode off. 

"General Hill asked if my orders embraced 
the burning of the building. I told him that 
I had no orders to burn the building. He 
said it should be done, and it w^as burned. 



AS TOLD BY THK CAMP-FIRE- 6l 

No man got any liquor out of that house, 
though other buildings contained sutler's 
stocks, and among them small quantities oi 
Hquors, which the soldiers were permitted 
to 'fisticate,' much to their gratification. 

"Now, Doctor, I have told you about all 
of personal interest to me that has taken 
place since we parted ; let us turn in for the 
night, and in the morning we will hear some 
more of your adventures." 

After breakfast next morning, Captain 
Magruder and Lieutenant Marr had a hearty 
laugh over a squabble they overheard among 
the men at the fire nearest their camp. 

It seems that one John Miller, finding that 
all the trees near were in use, a horse being 
haltered to each, had untied one of the horses 
from a convenient sapling and then tied his 
own horse in its place. The owner of the 
loose horse, Henry Oaks, finding out whose 
horse had been put in the place of his, came 
up to the fire where Miller stood, and said 
w^ith great deliberation, ''John Miller, you 
took m}^ tree, and the next time you hitch 
my horse loose, I will hitch your horse 
loose." 

This put all in good humor, and the Doc- 
tor coming up, Marr asked him if Captain 
Magruder had ever told him about the first 
capture of Warrenton, Va., by the Federal 



62 he:ross and spie;s 01^ the: civil war. 

raiders. He said ''No," and at once beset the 
Captain to tell him about it. Magruder ac- 
quiesced as follows: "When war was first 
declared all the towns and villages formed 
companies of home guards, who were to pro- 
tect them against the Federal armies. War- 
renton formed quite a good sized company. 
They elected officers and went to drilling. 
Amongst the members was a long-bearded, 
tall, fine looking Presbyterian preacher, 

Mr. P . It could be said pretty truly 

of him that he belonged to the church mili- 
tant, as he had been for secession and carried 
himself more like a soldier than a clergyman. 
This home guard was instructed as to the 
position assigned each, should the Union 
troops be so rash as to attempt to tackle the 
home guards, and all felt that they were se- 
cure. Time wore on, until one night a raid- 
ing party of about one hundred Federals 
marched unexpectedly into the town and 
were having things their own way, when the 
people awoke to the fact that 'the Greeks 
were at their doors.' Of course every- 
body was scared, and no wonder, for not a 
move was heard from the home guards, nor 
was a single one of them to be found ; prob- 
ably because there was no one to lead ofif or 
rally them. 



AS TOI.D BY the: camp-fire. 63 

"The next day, after the troops were gone 
and the gallant guard had got back home, 
the funny part of the thing came out. Rev- 
erend P had been captain of the guards, 

and next to him in command was a hot- 
headed fellow, who, being a little lame, was 
only prevented from going with the volun- 
teers by that fact. His name we will call 

H . He gave the following account of 

his part in the orderly retreat made by each 
man for himself. He said that when he heard 
the firing he ran across lots and climbed as 
many fences, and as high fences, as he came 
to; that he was a mile from town when he 
lay down in the grass at the bottom of a 
fence to await the result of his strategical 
movements; and after lying there for over 
two hours, he thought he would venture to 
sit up. As he executed this movement he 
heard, and what was more terrible, he saw 
a fierce-looking man jump down not ten feet 
from him. As soon as he could get his voice 

he cried out, 'I surrender!' Captain P 

was the man who jumped ofif the fence, and 
called out to him, 'Don't shoot!' and there 
they were, like two ninnies — one trying to 
surrender and the other begging him not to 
shoot. These men were brave, but had just 
been panic-stricken. 



64 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIL WAR. 

"That County of Fauquier," Captain Ma- 
gruder concluded, ''furnished the Ashby 
brothers, Turner and Richard, each of whom 
died at the front; Captain Sheets, killed at 
Buckton Station; the gallant Dan Hatcher; 
jthe Brents and Paynes ; and Lieut. Orlando 
Smith, who was shot at the same time Lieu- 
tenant Marr was wounded in the Wilderness ; 
and a host of other brave men; but a panic 
cannot be either measured or accounted for." 

"Yes, that is true," said Lieutenant Marr. 
"You remember, Captain, that the night we 
pursued General Banks into Winchester, as 
the victorious troops were marching along 
the pike lighted by the burning wagons of 
'the commissary,' as we called General 
Banks, how the 33rd Virginia, as brave a 
regiment as ever fired a gun, had come, up to 
two burning wagons, and were in high glee, 
when suddenly some shells in the wagon ex- 
ploded. Instantly the men ran in every di- 
rection, yet next day, strange to say, each 
man said that he was not with that part 
of the regiment that ran away. As the ex- 
plosion made it darker for a while, they all 
got back without being seen." 

"Now, Lieutenant Marr," said Captain 
Magruder, "as you have made me tell the 
Doctor the home-guard story, you tell us 
about that raid you made across the Rappa- 



AS TOLD BY Ttli: CAMP-FlRE. 65 

hannock River on that horse-stealing expe- 
dition. The truth is, Doctor, Marr don't 
hke to attend to a horse, and would rather 
risk being shot trying to get a fat horse than 
to keep his own fat." 

''No, Doctor, that is not the case," re- 
joined Marr; "for while I have five I don't 
get feed enough for one. You shall judge 
when I tell you that our company was nearly 
disabled from constant marching and fight- 
ing, when we were sent down to act as a 
reserve force to the company on duty guard- 
ing the few crossings of the Rappahannock 
River. And as our horses were so thin and 
forage so scarce, quite a number of the men 
begged to go home to the Valley, and 
pledged that if furloughed they would bring 
back fresh horses. I knew Gen. D. O. 
Funsten, of Clarke County, Va., very well. 
He was in command of the brigade. I got 
Lieut. Col. Thomas Marshall, our daring Httle 
lieutenant colonel, to go with me to General 
F. and ask permission to take fifty men, ford 
the river and capture the horses on the other 
side. This permission was granted, with the 
admonition not to bring on a battle if pos- 
sible to avoid it. That very morning one of 
my men had a visit from a young cousin of 
his who had slipped through the lines, and 
near whose home the Federal reserve was 
5 



66 HKROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIE WAR. 

encamped in the woods about a mile from 
the river. He agreed to pilot us, as he knew 
ever}^ foot of the way, even on the darkest 
night. All hands were soon ready. The 
raid was to be made on foot, each man to 
carry a pistol, no gun or sabre; the pistol 
to be kept dry even if the man drowned, and 
not a word was to be spoken by any one, ex- 
cept by the guide or the officer in command, 
from the time we left camp until we returned 
to our side of the river. The night was dark, 
and with a misty rain falHng was so cold that 
no amount of clothing would warm a man. 

"We entered the water as quietly as we 
could in the darkest shadow of the ford, and 
slowly felt our way, nearly frozen by the cold, 
dark water. The place was a blind ford and 
was not as closely guarded as those better 
known. My teeth chattered so I thought 
that the pickets would surely be alarmed and 
detect our design. The men had all been 
instructed to stoop when in shallow water, 
of which we found little, and only stand erect 
when the water would cover the body in that 
position ; the head and the pistol only must 
be above the water. At that point the river 
bed was very wide but fairly smooth, but, oh, 
it was cold enough to freeze the marrow in 
our bones, that December night ! At last we 
got over, and got down on all fours, and then 



AS TOLD BY the: CAMP-mRE. 67 

crawled for nearly half a mile, so that we 
might not be seen by the pickets on either 
side of us, between two of whom we passed. 
We kept up this infantile progress until we 
came to a ditch that had little water in it, and 
was deep enough to conceal us pretty well. 
We followed the guide, single file, up this 
ditch until we came to a piece of dark timber, 
when we could stand up for the first time in 
safety. As to keep together in the dark and 
not speak was a difficulty, we overcame it 
by the use of a thick twine string which each 
man held with his left hand, holding his pistol 
with his right; and so we marched 'end on,' 
as our guide called our new movement. It 
worked well, and kept us together in the 
pitchy darkness of that terrible night. 

"It was about one o'clock in the morning 
when we came in sight of the log fire of the 
folks we had come to visit from over the way. 
They were down in a hollow, or very low 
place, pretty well shut in by brush, by which 
we knew that hiding was their game. We 
could not form a line of battle, nor surround 
the men lying about the fire, as the bushes 
prevented, so we had to attack 'end-on.' The 
guide alone stopped, and we stole by him as 
cautiously as possible. Only one man was 
found sitting up, and he was an officer and 
asleep. My idea was to seize him and quietly 



68 hi:roe;s and spies ci^ the: civil war. 

wake one at a time, secure the horses and 
ride out; but a camp guard wlio was posted 
only about fifty yards from the fire saw me 
as the first man to come between him and 
the blaze. Then he sang out in a loud, 
scared voice : 'Who goes there ?' This 
awakened the sleeping officer, who, as quick 
as a wink, shot at me across the fire. I re- 
turned his courtesy in kind, and at that 
moment felt a blow in the small part of my 
back — then all became dark and down I went. 

''Lieutenant Orlando Smith was next in 
command, and carried out the plan splen- 
didl}', securing at least a good horse for each 
man, and an extra few upon which his prison- 
ers were mounted by the light of the fire; 
but they all dropped off in the dark woods 
through which the retreat had to be made, 
and when our party got to the river not a 
prisoner did they have, though they were 
badly scattered and demoralized. 

''As for me, at first I lost consciousness 
and knew nothing of the victor's joy. A pain, 
a sharp report, and darkness, and all was ap- 
parently over with me. As I learned after- 
ward, one of my men — William Minnick, a 
bold and terrible man in battle, who was from 
Brock's Gap, Rockingham County, a fine 
specimen of the man and soldier — resolved 
that I should not be left, even if I was dead. 



AS TOI,D BY THE CAMP-I^IRE. 69 

So he laid me in front of him across his horse, 
and with the help of others came on in that 
way, till in crossing the river my hands, head, 
and feet reached into the water; this some- 
what revived me, when they set me upright 
and thus brought me over ; then they got up 
a stretcher of halter straps, two rails, and 
some coats, and brought me thus to camp. 
My life was despaired of by the surgeon for 
a while, but though my clothes were cut 
through and a large contusion made upon 
my backbone, the bone was not broken, nor 
did the predicted paralysis take place. That 
is the end of the story, and came near being 
the end of me." 

"Now, Lieutenant, you have heard that 'a 
man who is born to be hanged won't be 
drowned,' " said Captain Magruder. "That 
may be the reason why that fellow who blew 
off the top of your hat did not hit, as the doc- 
tor says, 'higher down.' " 



CHAPTER V. 

MORK CAMP-FIRE TALES. 

The Laurel Brigade was, a few months 
later, encamped between New Market and 
Harrisonburg, in their beloved Valley, from 
which most of the men of the Seventh, and 
many of the other regiments, had volunteer- 
ed. Doctor Contre had been a large part of 
his time in Richmond, trying to get the War 
Department to effect an exchange for him, 
so that he could get back into the service; 
he was of so active and restless a nature that 
he could not repress that overflowing ac- 
tivity of his energy, for which reason Marr 
told him that he was all right as long as he 
was in motion, but would spoil if kept still 
like Avater. It was rumored that while in 
Richmond, with his wounded arm yet in a 
sling, and looking pale and intellectual, he 
had met with a wound of a different kind. 
He had met there one of Richmond's beau- 
ties, a Miss Sanders, and had been so fasci- 



MORE camp-fire: tali^s. 7 I 

nated that much of his time had been spent, 
first in getting an introduction, and later in 
fohowing up the siege upon which he was 
now bent. This his old friends in the Seventh 
had only by hearsay, which is not always re- 
liable; and in time of war it is not safe to 
believe anything 3^ou don't know to be ab- 
solutely true. 

Doctor Contre turned up at camp one fine 
crisp day in December and dropped in on 
Magruder and Marr as they came off the 
morning drill. He was warmdy welcomed, 
and he announced that he would billet him- 
self upon them for a while, as he was com- 
pelled to wait until the Department had set- 
tled his status. He said that in order to 
show his recollection of them in his absence 
he had bought a trunk in Richmond and filled 
it with such luxuries as they did not often 
taste. He asked that they send a man over 
to the station to get the reply to a telegram 
that he had wired to Staunton to know why 
the trunk had not reached New Market, as 
it should. A man was sent and returned in 
an hour, to say that the stage had not 
brought the trunk ; but he brought a dis- 
patch from the quartermaster at S 

saying, "Have sent your trunk by A. M. 
Bulance to New Market." No one knew 
who this Bulance could be, and all began to 



CHAPTER V. 

MORK CAMP-FIRE TAI,ES. 

The Laurel Brigade was, a few months 
later, encamped between New Market and 
Harrisonburg, in their beloved Valley, from 
which most of the men of the Seventh, and 
many of the other regiments, had volunteer- 
ed. Doctor Contre had been a large part of 
his time in Richmond, trying to get the War 
Department to effect an exchange for him, 
so that he could get back into the service ; 
he was of so active and restless a nature that 
he could not repress that overflowing ac- 
tivity of his energy, for which reason Marr 
told him that he was all right as long as he 
was in motion, but would spoil if kept still 
like water. It was rumored that w^hile in 
Richmond, with his wounded arm yet in a 
sling, and looking pale and intellectual, he 
had met with a wound of a different kind. 
He had met there one of Richmond's beau- 
ties, a Miss Sanders, and had been so fasci- 



more: camp-i^ire tale:s. 7 I 

nated that much of his time had been spent, 
first in getting an introduction, and later in 
fohowing up the siege upon which he was 
now bent. This his old friends in the Seventh 
had only by hearsay, which is not always re- 
liable; and in time of war it is not safe to 
believe anything you don't know to be ab- 
solutely true. 

Doctor Contre turned up at camp one fine 
crisp day in December and dropped in on 
Magruder and Marr as they came off the 
morning drill. He was warmly welcomed, 
and he announced that he would billet him- 
self upon them for a while, as he was com- 
pelled to wait until the Department had set- 
tled his status. He said that in order to 
show his recollection of them in his absence 
he had bought a trunk in Richmond and filled 
it with such luxuries as they did not often 
taste. He asked that they send a man over 
to the station to get the reply to a telegram 
that he had wired to Staunton to know why 
the trunk had not reached New Market, as 
it should. A man was sent and returned in 
an hour, to say that the stage had not 
brought the trunk ; but he brought a dis- 
patch from the quartermaster at S 

saying, "Have sent your trunk by A. M. 
Bulance to New Market." No one knew 
who this Bulance could be, and all began to 



72 HKROKS AND SPI:ES 01? THE^ CIVIL WAR. 

fear that the good things had been confis- 
cated, as they often were, by the couriers. 
The Doctor raved, and the good Major, who 
had been told that he would be expected to 
help out with the eatables, and had consented 
without the least persuasion, proposed that 
we all go on a search, and never stop till we 
got the contents of that trunk. When all 
were about to adopt this vigorous method 
for finding the good things, and the camp 
had been stirred up over it. Captain Ma- 
gruder picked up the dispatch, and laughed 
out as he saw that the trunk had been sent 
by the ambulance of the regiment that day 
to their quarters. This put all in a good hu- 
mor once more and pleased the Major to 
such a degree that he started som.e men out 
to meet Mr. "A. M. Bulance," and escort his 
charge into camp. When the good things ar- 
rived and he found boneless turkey, lobsters, 
oysters, corn, tomatoes, clams, sardines, cof- 
fee, tea, prunes, brandy peaches, cordial and 
wine, it was just too much for poor hungry 
men who had been so long without a full 
meal ! They did not know how hungry they 
were for things not on the Confederacy's bill 
of fare! They all had a jolly dinner, which 
lasted well into the night; and when the 
dozen of well-fed officers parted for the night 



more: camp-i^irE TAr,E:s. 73 

it was with a consciousness that each had 
done his best. 

Magruder, Marr, and the Doctor were left 
at the fireside for one of the long talks they 
usually indulged in when together. The 
Lieutenant was asked to tell about the last 
two scouts he had made by the orders of 
Gen. William E. Jones, who was in command 
of Laurel Brigade. General Jones was fa- 
miliarly called ''Citizen Jones," as he never 
wore a imiform. Generally, in warm weather, 
he went in his shirt sleeves, his coat tied on 
behind his saddle, and the brown and faded 
back of his vest the most conspicuous thing 
about him, except his bravery first, and his 
profanity next — qualities in which he had few 
equals, and no superiors, in the army. This 
old brigade, organized by the lamented Gen. 
Turner Ashby, afterward commanded in turn 
by Robertson, Jones, and Rosser, made a his- 
tory for itself of daring deeds and great re- 
sults. All of its commanders but Rosser 
were killed in the forefront of battle, Rosser, 
one of the finest cavalry officers developed 
by the inter-state war, yet survives to be 
beaten in the scramble for political prefer- 
ment. Rosser had a fashion of calling too 
often on ''our good friend, the enemy," as 
Gen. R. E. Lee called the Federals. No mat- 
ter how far from Rosser the nearest camp of 



74 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIL WAR. 

the enemy might be, nor how well fortified, 
Rosser was sure to make a raid upon him, and 
was nearly always successful; even to the 
capture of New Creek, a perfect Mountain 
Gibraltar, without the loss of a man. 

"Now, Lieutenant, let us have the account 
of the two scouting parties you led since I 
was here last," said the Doctor. 

''The first one came out of the way the 
distillers treated 'Old Citizen Jones,' after he 
had dealt so leniently with them," began 
the Lieutenant. "Complaint had come to 
the General that the stills were using up all 
the grain, so that the people, as well as the 
army, were likely to suffer from the scarcity 
and price of grain. The General ordered 
them to stop the distilling of grain, but they 
did not mind the order. He then ordered 
them to bring in all the 'still caps' and store 
them under guard in Staunton. They obey- 
ed, brought in the copper caps^ but made 
others of wood, and went on with the manu- 
facture. This made the General mad, and 
he swore like the army in Flanders. He sent 
a courier for me, and v/hen I answered his 
summons, he told me the history of his ef- 
forts to control the matter, and said 'Lieu- 
tenant, you pick out twenty good men, go 
all through the mountains, sieze and destroy 
every still house, spill the Hquor and cut up 



MORE camp-fire: tali:s. 75 

the stills, and if you are resisted hang the 
stiller; I mean that very thing!' We had 
sharp fighting to capture some of them, and 
several of my men were sHghtly wounded. 

"At one place we had more trouble and 
fighting than anywhere else, the women tak- 
ing part in its defense. We had gone to 
work to cut and burn, when I noticed a large, 
strong-looking woman running down to-^ 
wards us from the hut on the hill, with a 
large horse bucket in her hand, and a white 
bandage around her head. She ran up to me 
and said, 'Sir, won't you please let me have a 
little liquor for my headache ? It is the only 
thing that does me any good.' I declined to 
approve the prescription, whereupon she fell 
to cursing me. 

"The other adventure was when we were 
down in Berkley County, near Martinsburg. 
The General called me to go to his camp, and 
showed me a note from Mrs. Charles J. 
Faulkner, of Martinsburg, saying that a man 
named Mericle, who professed to be a ped- 
ler, was a spy, and that he was in the habit 
of crossing the Potomac River near there 
.with goods, and returning with all the infor- 
mation he could gather about our army. She 
gave particulars of the way in which she 
thought he could be caught. The General 
said to me, 'You go down there and take 



76 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

that man Mericle.' We went down, watch- 
ed along the river, and at daybreak Mericle 
came over in a one-horse wagon, with quite 
a lot of goods and some letters that would 
have proved very valuable to General Jones. 
And the strangest thing was that the outside 
letter of the parcel was addressed to Dr. Lou 
Lile Contre, I suppose from the Italian Em- 
bassy. I told a sergeant to ride in front and 
told Mericle to follow with his wagon until 
he had crossed a little stream that was just 
ahead. When he reached the other side of 
this stream, I asked the sergeant for the let- 
ters, and he said they were in his coat pocket, 
but found that the whole lot had run through 
a great hole in his pocket, gone into the 
stream and were lost. I was much provoked 
at this, and ordered the sergeant to take a 
man with him and take Mericle with his 
wagon to the rear to General Jones, while I 
went to see where the Federal force was, and 
was greatly worried to find when I got to 
camp the horse and wagon, but no Mericle. 
It seems that the foolish sergeant, in place 
of making his guard ride behind the wagon, 
took him with him in front, and on coming 
to a narrow road down a steep hill the fellow 
had jumped out behind, and the horse just 
followed those foolish guards. 



MORi: camp-fire: tai^i^s. 77 

"Now, Captain, it is your turn to tell us 
your experience on your last scout, and then 
we will have the Doctor tell us about that 
campaign he is prosecuting in Richmond." 

Captain Magruder said : "My story will be 
a short one: I had left my men at the ford, 
up on the Madison River, and started out 
alone to see a lady friend who lived about 
three miles beyond our Hues, and about the 
same distance this side of the Federal lines. 
I know^ that I had no business to run that 
risk, as the Sammies came out every day, but 
I went. 

"As it was raining lightly, I put my gum 
cloth on, and then no one could tell which 
army I belonged to, as the gum cloth cover- 
ed all my dress but my boots. I had gone a 
little over a mile when I came in sight of 
some kind of a group of men and horses; 
I had just come around a sharp curve in th^ 
road, and was right on them. There was 
one man on a horse, holding two other horses 
by their bridles; two men were up a cherry 
tree eating cherries. As soon as I took in 
the situation, I took out my pistol, held it 
under m}^ oil cloth and did not check my pace 
nor seem in the least concerned about them. 
I kept my eye on the fellow holding the 
horses, to see that he did not touch his car- 
bine, till I got close enough to touch; then 



78 h£:roi:s and spie:s o^ thk civiIv war. 

I put the pistol in his face and told him to 
hold up his hands. This he did as well as he 
could with the bridles in his hands. I then 
said, 'you move your hands and I'll shoot 
you.' By this time the two up the tree had 
started to come down. I called out, 'none of 
that, you stay up there, or I'll bring you down 
another way !' 

"I reached and took all the carbines, hung 
them on the saddle of one horse, and then 
made the two men come down, one at a time. 
The first one I made mount behind the man 
who had held the horses, then the other fel- 
low had to come down and get on the horse 
that had no carbine on its saddle. I made 
them each hold the bridle of the other's 
horse, and not that of the horse he rode. 
I mounted the horse that carried the arms, 
and then gave the prisoners to understand 
that if they spoke or tried to escape, I would 
shoot all three. We turned about and rode 
in a trot for the ford, where my men were, and 
arrived with all three prisoners, three guns 
and three horses, though I did not get to see 
my lady friend. And now, Doctor, we will 
Hsten while you tell us about that capture in 
Richmond." 

"O, that don't count, as nothing has been 
determined. But this I will promise: I will 
bring her on a visit to your camp." 



more: camp-fire: tai,e:s. 79 

Captain Magruder was then importuned 
for a story, and told the following interesting 
tale: 

"As you all know, General Rosser made 
two raids out to the Moorefield and Peters- 
burg Valleys. On the first of these raids, 
after reaching the main road from New Creek 
to Petersburg, we turned northward and en- 
camped within three miles of the Federal 
force, which was much larger than ours, and 
directly in whose route we had planted our- 
selves. The mercury was thirty degrees be- 
low zero, the road a mass of ice, and the 
whole mountain encrusted with frozen snow. 
We had enough fuel and used it without 
stint, as almost constant effort was required 
to keep from freezing. To keep warm in the 
teeth of such a bitter night was the chief end 
of man. My m.en had just taken possession of 
a huge dry log, four feet thick, and built a fire 
against it that promised as much comfort as 
iwas possible, when an orderly came up to me 
with an order from the General, saying that 
he wanted an officer and ten men to make a 
scout to the westward of the camp of the 
enemy, and see if there was a country road 
that led to a ford which could be used in or- 
der to get well to the rear of the enemy. 
The General said that as all the men had been 
worked so hard and exposed both day and 



8o HEROES AND SPIES CE THE CIVIE WAR. 

night, he would not make any detail; but 
that he would be greatly gratified if men 
enough would volunteer. The service was 
very important and the information was want- 
ed at once. 

''I called the men to me in an informal way 
about the fire and said that I was ^oingf 
either with those who would volunteer, or 
alone, if no one else was willing to go. Every 
man in the squadron offered as with one 
voice. I made them draw lots, and soon we 
were in the saddle. We had minute direc- 
tions, which fortunately I gave to the ser- 
geant of the squad. 

"We started, and after goinof about half a 
mile we found ourselves on a ridge, from 
which we could see distinctly the fires of the 
enemy's camp as well as our own. We pass- 
ed down the side of this ridge to a little valley 
between two ridges. While down there we 
could not see the fires of either side. Just 
then my stirrup broke, and I halted to fix it. 
I told the sergeant to go on with the men 
slowly and quietly and that I would overtake 
them soon. While I had the saddle girth 
loose, my horse turned fool and got so im- 
patient for the others that he made a sud- 
den start, threw the saddle blankets into the 
road and capered all over the place. At last 
I got him quieted, and he seemed to have 



MORi: CAMP-P'IRi: TALE^S. 8 I 

determined not to bother any further about 
the others. I mounted, looked around, could 
vSee no famihar points ; listened, but could 
hear nothing but the sharp cold wind whist- 
ling through the dreary hills. I was lost! 
My horse had spun around so much as to 
cause me to lose my reckoning. I felt sure 
that the sergeant would retrace his steps 
when he found that I did not follow, and wait- 
ed an hour for his return. It was too cold 
and useless to stand still, so I thought I 
would go — but where? I could from either 
ridge see the two lines of fires. To ride up 
to one would be all right, but if it should be 
the wrong one, what then? I realized a 
sense of utter loneness that surprised me. 
I thought of the intuition said to be possessed 
by the horse, and the idea of just giving him 
the rein and trusting in God to direct took 
strong possession of me. I thought I would 
test the plan, and found that if I headed him 
one way he would, go in that direction, and 
vice versa. So it was evident that he was as 
badly lost as I. Indeed, he seemed to trem- 
ble and fear as though he knew the situation. 
At last, being nearly dead with cold, I made 
up my mind that I would ride toward the 
line where I noticed a much brighter fire than 
at any other place on either of the two ranges 
of fires, for it was now late, and I believed 

6 



'-^f^^ 



82 HKRCES AND SPIi:S OF THE: CIVII. WAR. 

that big black log was doing the beacon-light 
business. So I held my pistol ready and rode 
boldly up to the picket ; was halted, gave our 
countersign, and was ready to shoot and run 
if I turned out to be in the wrong camp. I 
was right! That big log we left burning 
brightly when we moved back to the Valley 
the next day. I shall never envy any one 
who gets lost between the lines." 

Captain Magruder was thanked warmly 
for his interesting narrative, and then the 
chaplain, Rev. Theodore Carson, gave the 
following pathetic story: 

''On the evening of the second day of one 
of the greatest battles which has marked the 
mighty struggle between the North and the 
South, after the grassy plain had been fought 
over by the contending lines of infantry, and 
was thickly strewn with dead and wounded 
men, dismantled guns, broken-down ammuni- 
tion wagons, discarded muskets, and other 
evidences of the heat of the contest that had 
swept over the pretty green sward and con- 
verted it into a field of blood and carnage — 
about four o'clock in the evening, an order 
was sent to the general in command of the 
cavalry and horse artillery, Stuart, to press 
forward and convert the slow retreat of the 
enemy into a rout. 



MORE CAMP-FIRE TALES.. 83 

"Quickly the bugles sounded the advance, 
which, beginning with a trot, soon became a 
gallop, till much of the field had been cross- 
ed; then, as the Hnes of the foe came into 
sight, the grand charge began — five thousand 
horsemen, with sabres flashing in the summer 
sun, the troops yeUing, the artillery thunder- 
ing along over the dead and dying, the earth 
fairly trembling under the hoofs and wheels 
of the vast host, as it swept on up the slope 
of the ridge upon which the guns of the 
enemy were posted, and which were belch- 
ing out their sheets of fire and hail of iron 
right into the face of the coming squadrons, 
who with a mad yell, and whirling sabres, 
soon cut down or captured the gunners who 
could not escape, and broke the lines of their 
support. A wild stampede followed, which 
was soon converted into a confused flight, 
each moment worse confounded by their own 
captured guns as well as ours turned upon 
them as they fled over the southern plain. It 
was in this grand and resistless charge that 
for an instant, as I passed near a little mound 
of earth which had been thrown out of a drain, 
I noticed stretched upon it a wounded sol- 
dier, a mere boy. He lay upon his back, and 
was holding up a little book with both hands. 
Time only was there for one glance at the 
poor fellow, but it was long enough to show 



84 HI:R0ES and SPII:S 01^ THIi CIVIL WAR. 

that he had fought his last battle and that 
soon his Ufe would be gone. His gaze was 
fixed on that open book. For him the boom 
of cannon, the roar of musketry, the shouts 
of the victor, and the flight of the vanquish- 
ed had no voice that could engage his soul, 
now holding its last earthly communion with 
the Crucified One through the word of that 
book. 

"Never while I live will I forget that one 
glance of the dying boy, and the evident ab- 
sorption of his whole soul — not in the great 
scenes enacted about him, but in the words 
of Jesus. He was some mother's boy, who, 
when he left home for the last time, had been 
given by her that little book. She would 
watch for his return in vain; soon his body 
would be buried in the shallow trench with 
many others, but it was with his nn ther's 
God and of his heavenly home he then com- 
muned. We know that only one book of all 
the libraries of earth could have had a mes- 
sage for that soul, when the grandest and 
most awful scenes of earth could no longer 
have any interest for one who was about to 
join in the exultant song of victory with the 
bright convoy of angels who issued forth 
from the gates to welcome him into the rest 
which remaineth 'over the river under the 
shade of the trees.' " 



MORK CAMP-P'IRE: TAI^ES. 85 

Lieutenant Marr was then coaxed by the 
Doctor, who seemed never to tire of personal 
reminiscences, to tell of the swap on the 
picket line. 

"One dark, murky morning," said Marr, 
"I was going the rounds of my part of the 
picket line, when on breaking through a 
thicket of swamp, well down on the flat bank 
of the Rappahannock River, which was then 
our outer Hne, just where I expected to find 
myself within a few feet of the 'Man in Gray," 
to my great surprise I ran in front of a 
Yankee soldier on post where my man should 
have been. The fellow saluted, and to miy 
demand to know what he was doing there, 
he pointed across the river, where, sure 
enough, I saw Alvin Horn, of my own com- 
pany. Just then he secured a partly-filled 
bag from a trooper and rode across the ford 
to where I was. The Federal then stated 
that they were only trading coffee for to- 
bacco, and meant no harm. Of course I 
scolded, and explained that, for a time, he 
did duty in the enemy's service, but did not 
prefer charges, as his act, so innocent in pur- 
pose, would have been punished with death." 



CHAPTER VI. 

RISKY BUSINESS — MORE; STORIES. 

A few days later, Colonel Dulany, then in 
command of the Seventh, issued a call for 
all of the commissioned officers of the regi- 
ment to meet at his headquarters ; and when 
they were assembled he stated that Surgeon 
Contre was well enough and willing to teach 
the use of the sabre if a sufificient number 
could be gotten. That as Doctor Contre 
would charge nothing, it would be a good op- 
portunity for the officers to acquire profici- 
ency and then instruct the non-commissioned 
officers, after which they could teach the men. 
All but a few of the officers agreed to take 
lessons whenever Doctor Contre was strong 
enough. And for the next few weeks, not 
only the officers, but many of the men, were 
hard at work with the sabre from morning 
until night when not on other duty or drill- 
ing. 

After all had come back into camp and 
Captain Magruder, Captain Myers, Lieu- 



RISKY BUSINESS — MORE STORIES. 87 

tenant Marr, and Surgeon Contre were again 
huddled around the large fire that was need- 
ful to make living out of doors possible, the 
Doctor said : 

''Now we want the Lieutenant to tell us all 
about that last mission on which he went for 
General Jones, when he resigned so mysteri- 
ously and was so quickly back and so prompt- 
ly reelected. I have before h^d only an ink- 
ling of the intended trip. Come, let us have 
the story in full by all means." 

''Well," said Marr, "here it is. One 
evening, after a heavy fall of snow and a cold 
snap had set in, General Jones' orderly came 
to me with a message to come to his quarters 
and remain till morning. Of course I at 
once started for the General's tent, reaching 
headquarters about ten o'clock. Upon being 
ushered into his presence the General said, 
'Marr, I want a long talk with you, and if 
you have had your supper, take off as much of 
your clothing as you Hke and take those two 
robes and make your bed there, so that we 
jieed not talk loud.' I did as I was told, and 
when I was comfortable the General con- 
tinued : 'Now if you do not wish to perform 
the service I will indicate, just decline it, as it 
is an extra hazardous duty, and should never 
be exacted of any soldier. I wish to find 
out with absolutely accuracy what the Fed- 



88 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIE WAR. 

eral force is now at Harper's Ferry, and 
the names of the officers and whose brigades 
are there. In other words, I must know 
what their strength is at that point. We are 
planning a raid west of that place, and do not 
want to stir them up by a scout movement in 
that direction, so some one must take his 
life in hand and go there, knowing that if 
caught it might go hard with him.' 

"'General,' I said, 'tell me your plan; 
what means you would suggest, and to what 
measures you would resort if your man was 
caught.' 

" '1 have thought the matter over, and I 
would like to have you undertake the task,' 
said the General, 'resigning your commission 
in the army to-morrow morning. I will see 
that it is accepted and that a discharge from 
the service is signed by General Jackson. 
Change your clothes and go as a spy, and 
not as a scout. Don't get caught, but if you 
are caught and they want to condemn you, 
they shall be notified that an officer of high 
rank, now in our hands, shall have the same 
fate meted out to you. He is a near rela- 
tive of the Secretary of State of Mr. Lincoln's 
Cabinet, and I have reason to know that he 
shall not escape before you get back, or live 
an hour longer than you do. They would 
not allow that man to be executed for a regi- 



RISKY BUSINESS — MORE STORIES. 89 

merit of men, as his friends have great power. 
When you return you shall be reelected to 
your present position, or, if you prefer it, 
shall have promotion. All I tell and promise 
you is with the knowledge of General Jack- 
son, and will be confirmed by him. You shall 
have as much money as will pay your ex- 
penses. I know that you would spurn the 
ofTer of more. Much depends upon the 
movement now about to be made, and you 
can get the information we want and must 
have.' 

'' 'General,' I said, 'you wish me to stay 
with you to-night; I'll do so, and let you 
know my answer in the morning.' 

''I slept none that night, as the undertak- 
ing bristled with difficulties, danger, and pos- 
sibly a felon's death. However, in the morn- 
ing when the General came out he found me 
ahead of him. We had breakfast, and then 
I said: 'Make your arrangements, I will go 
and get you the information you wish.' 

"He looked at me intently, and said, 'have 
you thought of wife and child ?' 

" 'Yes, sir;' I said; 'I don't think any new 
phase of the matter can be presented to my 
mind.' 

"I wrote my resignation and took it to 
Captain Magruder. It was dispatched to 



90 KINROSS AND SPIES OF THE CIVII. WAR. 

General Jackson and duly accepted, and was 
read two days later to the command. 

"I made myself a citizen, rode to New 
Market, and went on foot from thence to the 
Massanutton Mountain. Snow covered the 
ground eight inches deep. On reaching the 
mountain I toolc the road that followed the 
river at its base, and traveled on it all day, 
and stayed that night in a cabin about fifteen 
miles from New Market. Early next day I 
turned my back upon Strasburg and crossed 
over to the main ridge of the Blue Ridge, 
followed its base and the Shenandoah River 
to Castleman's Ferry, and stayed at night in 
a hut with a charcoal-getter; kept on next 
morning to 'The Rocks,' nine miles from 
Charlestown, in Jefferson County, Va. It 
was late in the day, and though I knew the 
country perfectly, as scouting parties were 
passing in sight most of the time, I stuck to 
the woods and ravines till within three miles 
of town ; and as it was then dusk, and I heard 
a regiment of Federals going along in the 
main road to Charlestown, I let them pass 
and trudged along in the rear. They went 
on through and I hid myself in a hay stack 
until near midnight, and then entering the 
town, went to my own house, where, after 
hard work, I succeeded in getting the color- 
ed servant woman awake and duly impressed 



RISKY BUSINi:SS — MORE STORIKS. 9 1 

with the importance of secrecy. She ex- 
plained the situation to my wife, who was 
greatly excited and alarmed. 

''I explained to the servant that I was there 
on business that would not only cause my 
arrest, but death, if my presence became 
known ; that she must excuse me for not al- 
lowing her out of our presence while I was 
there ; and that if I was caught her life would 
pay the penalty, as well as my own, as she 
^lone could betray me. She swore not to 
speak to any one but my wife and myself 
while T was there, and while she faithfully ob- 
served the caution, I did very narrowly es- 
cape capture through a different source. 

"My wife got a Mrs. Campbell to send my 
brother-in-law to me, he being a physician 
who was an old friend and school mate of the 
Surgeon-in-Chief of the Army at Harper's 
Ferry, and with whom he often dined, hav- 
ing a free pass into the lines. He undertook 
to go to Harper's Ferry, eight miles distant, 
and get me the full and exact information re- 
quired. This he did, and while he was ob- 
taining me these facts, the town in which I 
was concealed was thoroughly searched by 
a Federal regiment. I could see them hunt- 
ing through the jail and other pubHc build- 
ings from my hiding place. They said they 
had just received information that Rebel spies 



92 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIE WAR. 

were in town. That night at ten o'clock I 
left on foot, with a new saddle on my back; 
walked to my father's house, then in the keep- 
ing of trusty negroes, who had my best horse 
fat and ready for me. Those negroes never 
left my father's service, but remained till his 
death, and then hung about the old neigh- 
borhood as long as they lived. 

''I parted with those honest old servants 
with great regret at midnight. As I found 
scouts on all roads, I determined to cross 
the Shenandoah River if possible, in order to 
get out of the Valley, now like a nest of en- 
raged hornets. And so, over fields and 
through woods I went for twenty miles to 
the River, and at the edge of a dense woods 
to the home of an old laborer who had work- 
ed many years for my father. I reached his 
house a little before light, aroused the old 
man and made myself known to him, and told 
him that I must cross. He said that it was, 
humanly speaking, impossible, as the river, 
full to the banks with drift logs and rails, was 
running so as to sink any boat or rider. He 
made me come in, called up his wife, who was 
both glad and scared, as the Federals were 
there every day. They had taken all the 
boats, or broken them up, except their little 
skiff, which was hid in a ditch in the woods. 



RISKY BUSINESS — MORE STORIES. 93 

"She got us a nice breakfast, when we all 
knelt down and the old man prayed for God's 
blessing and guidance, that he might know 
and be able to do his duty. He prayed for 
Generals Lee, Jackson, all the neighbors, and 
then for me. That was an earnest, heartfelt 
prayer. Then he arose, took my hand, and 
said, *If you can risk your life for the cause 
every day and on such an errand, surely I can 
put the rest of my old life upon the altar of 
my country once. I will take you over if 
God wills.' 

''We went up the ditch, in and out of the 
rank bushes, and he led me down to his little 
boat. We got in, I untied one side of the 
bridle, holding fast to the other, put the sad- 
dle into the boat, talked to my beautiful 
horse, who had more sense than most peo- 
ple; the boat was pushed out, the horse fol- 
lowing, dodging the logs and drift as if he un- 
derstood the importance of that crossing. 
With all the efforts that the old man and I 
could make, we were forced to go down over 
a half mile to effect a landing on the other 
side, which we did. Then we worked the 
boat up close to the shore. Then the old 
man started back. I watched him with in- 
tense interest until I saw him land safely on 
the other side and into the old lady's arms, 
as she had waited, watched, and, I am sure, 



94 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIE WAR. 

prayed till we were over the perils of that 
venture. 

''I waived them a good-by, and have never 
seen them since, nor can I, until we all 'pass 
over the river and rest under the shade of the 
trees.' I reached General Tones' camp the 
next morning at daylight and was warmly 
welcomed by all; was reelected to my old 
position and offered promotion. My report 
was wired to General Jackson, who threaten- 
ed Harper's Ferry, while a demonstration 
was made by General Imboden, Capt. George 
Baylor, and Colonel Mosby upon Cumber- 
land, Duffields, Martinsburg, and New Creek, 
in order to necessitate reinforcements to be 
sent along: the line of the B. & O. R. R., and 
thus prevent the concentration towards 
Richmond." 

''Well told," said Captain Magruder. 
"Now, I am willing to go wherever I ought 
to go, wearing my uniform, but would not 
go on duty within the enemy's lines in the 
dress of a citizen for anybody." 

The Lieutenant held that when a man vol- 
unteered as a patriot he did so to perform 
whatever duty was asked of him by the officer 
in command, who was to be the judge of 
what the man should do in rendering service, 
even to the sacrifice of Hfe, if for the good 
of the country the officer thought this nee- 



RISKY BUSINESS — MORE STORIES. 95 

essary ; but he insisted that a mercenary or 
hired soldier, or one fighting for an alien 
cause, was not justified in acting the part of 
^ spy, as he could only do this out of selfish- 
ness, and not as an offering made in behalf 
of his native land. 

Captain Magruder thought the point well 
taken, and said, ''Now the Doctor, being an 
Italian and not an American, would not be 
justified in rendering such service; even 
though he did so out of love of adventure 
or out of kindness to an officer." 

The Doctor maintained that the distinction 
was too fine, and that soldiers of fortune 
should have as wide scope for their oppor- 
tunities as any one else; and that the ties 
growing out of the adoption of a country 
were nearly as strong as those of one's na- 
tive land, and that it all depended upon the 
constitution of the man to whom the chance 
came. 

Lieutenant Marr, after some urging, con- 
sented to tell about Jerry, the Trumpeter, 
and his pet mule, but insisted that it be after 
Captain Magruder had told the story of Gen- 
eral Lomax and the infantryman. 

"One day," the Captain said, ''General 
Lomax, a daring cavalry officer, who was 
more fond of dash than he was of dress, was, 
riding along a road that ran through an in- 



96 h^roe:s and spies of the civil war. 

fantry encampment, and, as he passed, a big 
soldier climbed upon the rail fence, and notic- 
ing the General, who appeared to be a pri- 
vate soldier, thought he would have some 
fun at his expense, and began the song 
much in use in the army and varied to suit 
the circumstances. This time it was : 

" 'If you want to do hard fighting, 

Join in the Infantry; 
If 3^ou want to have a lousy time, 
Join in the Cavalry!' 
with the chorus : 

" 'O, the butter-milk rangers, 
How they do get away from the Yan- 
kees !' 

"This was too much for the General, who 
jumped off his horse, pulled the man off the 
fence and wiped the ground with him, while 
his companions stood by and saw that the 
horseman had fair play. When they found 
out who he was, they were full of apologies, 
which Lomax accepted. 

Lomax was a fighter, and at Sharpsburg 
had his boots off when the bugle sounded 
'Boots and saddles, the enemy approaching 
rapidly!' The General's boots were very 
tight and wet, in consequence of which he 
could not get them on. He struggled, with 



RISKY BUSINKSS — MORE) STORIES. 97 

the aid of his servant, but with no success. 
Finally, getting desperate, he mounted in his 
stockings and rode to the front, went into the 
battle, and personally captured a war corre- 
spondent of a leading New York paper, who 
said through his paper that even Confederate 
officers wore no boots, as he was captured by 
a bare-foot one." 

"Now, Lieutenant let us have the sto^'y of 
'Jerry and the Mule,' " said the Doctor. 

"Now, Doctor," answered Marr, "con- 
sidering how slow you are to tell us about 
that Richmond case of yours, or to show me 
that cave near here that you used to hide in 
when the Bluecoats came up to Woodstock, 
and which I beheve you go to explore when- 
ever you get a day off, you exact stories of 
us pretty freely. I am, willing to wait until 
the beauty surrenders, and expect you to go 
halves in the profits of that cave after this 
cruel war is over. But about 'J^^^y ^^^ the 
Mule.' 

"The day before the disastrous battle of 
Bristow Station, where Gen, A. P. Hill fell 
into a trap set for him by the Yanks and got 
badly used up. General Stuart sent General 
LvOmax to hold a road about ten miles from 
Warrenton, while he would cross that road 
and try to delay the march of General Meade, 
whose troops were rapidly going through the 
7 



98 HKROKS AND SPIES OF TB-t CIVIL WAR. 

parallel road towards Bristow and Manassas. 
It seems that these two roads, though parallel 
at the pomt at which we intersected them, 
did really converge about two miles above 
that point and united again two miles lower 
down, leaving a piece of land about a half a 
mile wide and four miles long running to a 
point at each end between the two roads, 
shaped like a pair of tongs. 

''General Stuart took about fifteen hundred 
cavalry and two batteries to delay or prevent 
the forces of General Meade from using the 
first road, and ordered General Lomax, with 
one thousand men, to hold it while he held 
the road farthest from Warrenton, both of 
which roads General Meade would want to 
retreat by. We skirmished for several 
hours, delaying the enemy as much as possi- 
ble ; but the pressure became too heavy, and 
night having come. General Stuart ordered 
the force to fall back towards Warrenton, 
but soon found that General Lomax had re- 
tired, leaving the road behind us open to 
General Meade, and that a Federal column 
v^as quietly bivouacked behind us in the road 
Lomax was left to guard. 

''As the Federals were passing in a steady 
stream down the road Stuart had just left, 
he was thus enclosed on all sides, with only 
the space of a mile between the roads now 



RISKY BUSINESS — MORE STORIES. 99 

filled with twenty thousand infantry. There 
was but one thing to do, and this was to hide 
in the pine thicket that covered the little 
ground he had, and trust that the Federals 
did not know that he was there. Word was 
passed that no noise or fire was to be made, 
and the six guns and ah the horses were 
bunched up in the dense part of the thicket. 
Pickets were placed all around the hidden 
bivouac ; no one spoke above a whisper, and 
the horses seemed to think that they must 
be quiet too. One of the men said that he 
could hear the Federals pouring out oats for 
their horses. Surely hundreds of them cq \ld 
be seen and plainly heard around the fires 
they made of the fence rails, while we were 
in the dark pines. I was put with my squad- 
ron on picket; not to challenge any one, but 
whenever a bluecoat strayed too near our 
pickets we would just quietly take him 
prisoner and put him with our men in the 
midst of the thicket. We captured an aide 
of General Meade, who tried to pass across 
from one road to the parallel one. As he 
knew the situation, we took him up to Gen- 
eral Stuart, who greeted him kindly, and 
when he asked General Stuart which was the 
prisoner, the General or himself, the General 
laughed. 



loo he:roe:s and spies of the civii. war. 

"The aide said, 'General, if you will allow 
me to sup with you, I will have you to break- 
fast with me in the morning.' 

''This was a serious, but very likely cour- 
tesy. That night General Stuart sent out 
five men, who volunteered to pass through 
the Federal camp and carry to General Lee 
this message : 'Send some of your people to 
help us before daylight, or I will be on my 
way to Washington under command of Gen- 
eral Meade.' 

"Lieutenant Bushrod Washington, J. D. 
Keerl, and James N. Gallaher, were three of 
the five messengers, and, singularly, all got 
through safely, but really too late to help us. 
As I was quietly steahng along from one of 
my pickets to another, I came upon Jerry, 
the bugler, sitting on a log, crying. Know- 
ing him to be a fearless man in battle, I could 
not account for his tears, and said in a whis- 
per, 'Jerry, what is the matter with you? 
We may get out, and if not, a soldier's fate 
awaits us.' 

" 'I know that. Lieutenant, and I don't 
care what they do w^ith me; I don't fear to 
die or go to prison.' 

" 'Well then, Jerry, I asked, what is the 
matter?' 

"Bursting out in a flood of tears, he said, 
'Oh, if I could only take my dear mule by the 



RISKY BUSINESS — MOR^ ST0RIE:S. IOI 

tail and sling it out of here, they might do 
what they d — n please with me !' 

''As morning approached, we lost all hope 
of help from General Lee, as his troops were 
too far off to relieve us. So General Stuart 
had the six guns brought up to face the 
Federals that were in direct line between us 
and General Lee's troops. They were load- 
ed with grape, canister, and short shells. 
The troops were to be all in the saddle, ex- 
cept my squadron, who were dismounted, 
with carbines, to fire upon the nearest line 
of infantry, and then, if possible, to mount 
and form the rear guard of the column in its 
bold dash for freedom. In fact, I saw that 
this meant that my squadron was to be sacri- 
ficed for the good of the rest. I then realiz- 
ed how Jerry felt, and determined to sling 
that squadron out of that fix. All was ready, 
and just as the darkness began to lighten, the 
column was brought up behind the guns and 
made ready to charge at the word of com- 
mand. Soon we heard the drums of the 
Federals beat for roll call, while it was not 
yet light. We heard one order after another 
given, and then the teams were hitched up 
and their artillery ordered to move. It was 
found that owing to the softness of the 'black- 
jack' soil, their guns and wagons had sunk to 



I02 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIL WAR. 

the axles, while where we were was hard 
sand. 

"We heard the officers order the men to 
stack arms and help lift the guns and wagons 
out of the mire. They gathered thick by and 
crowded about the teams, straining, yelling, 
and cursing, when all at once our guns were 
turned loose, making havoc with the enemy, 
and of all the confusion worse confounded 
that ever was seen, that excelled! It was a 
perfect surprise. Men and teams scattered 
and ran over each other and in every direc- 
tion. Just then the order to march was 
given, the bugles all sounded the charge. On 
went, in a mad gallop, fifteen hundred cav- 
alry, who came out of the bushes as suddenly 
as if out of the sky. For a mile over the 
pretty plain could be seen men running in 
the greatest panic. Knowing that there was 
no more use for skirmishing, I had kept our 
led horses well closed up, and we fell in rear 
of our mad riders and came out about as well 
as the balance. Jerry and his mule got 
through, and he said that he would never risk 
it again, but send it home out of danger." 

Captain Magruder then told about the 
scene at Orange Court-House, when General 
Jones took the Seventh and Twelfth down 
there from Gordonsville, having heard that 
the Bluecoats were moving that way. "I 



RISKY BUSINItSS — MORE STORIl^S. 103 

found it true," he said, "for as the head of our 
column entered the town from the south, 
they came to the edge of the town on the 
north, and the two forces met in the streets, 
hand-to-hand fighting. The Confederates 
forced the Federals back, till all at once a 
panic was made in the rear of our columns, 
caused by the fact that the Federal com- 
mander had that morning expected that we 
would come down and engage his main 
column, and had sent a brigade to come into 
town behind us — which they did at a very 
inconvenient time for us. They scattered 
one-third of our men in the rear, while those 
in front did not know what was the matter 
in the rear, and drove their lines out of the 
town. Then if the Federals in our rear had 
but used their advantage, we would have 
been badly cut up; they got panic-stricken 
at some fancied danger, and bolted out 
through a cross street, and rode off as fast as 
possible. 

"General Jones said afterwards, 'that half 
of his men charged and half discharged.' 

"On the grounds about the residence of 
Colonel Willis, in the south side of the town, 
on a hill, many of our scattered men gather- 
ed. Seeing which, General Jones ordered 
me to take a squad and bring the men down 
into town and reorganize them. He ordered 



I04 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

the killing then and there of any man who 
failed to obey the order. As I approached 
the house about fifty men were standing in 
front of it. On the porch there stood a pret- 
ty and noble looking girl, Miss Willis, who 
;was urging the men to go to their command 
and do their duty. As I came up, I heard 
her say, *Oh, I wish I was a man !' when one 
pld fellow, who had been down in the fire, 
said, 'Yes, Miss, and if you was, you would 
wish you was a gal again mouty soon !' 

''This brought down the house, and I 
brought down the men." 

Major Myers was urged to tell about the 
trick that he played on General Elliott, but 
insisted that Lieutenant Marr should tell it 
for him, as he could not do the subject jus- 
tice. 

Marr said: 

"General Jones took his brigade down from 
Strasburg to Winchester to see where the 
Yanks were, and found General Elliott, with 
five thousand men, near Berryville, in Clarke 
County. We met their cavalry four miles 
out of Berryville and charged them, took 
them along pretty lively, until we pushed 
them into a grove near town, where we 
found ourselves looking into the grim 
mouths of six guns, shotted with grape and 
canister, and not more than two hundred and 



RISKY BUSINE:SS — MORE ST0RIE:S. 105 

fifty 3^ards away from us. As they had a 
heavy infantry support, there was but one 
thing to do, and that was to get out as soon 
as possible. If their gunners had been cool 
and aimed low, this story would not have 
been told; but they let fly their charges and 
limbered to the rear. Their shot went over 
our heads, and the only men they hurt was by 
the falling of limbs tipon us. We did not 
hang around there to see what they would 
do. They retreated towards Charlestown, 
and we fell back to Winchester. 

''The next day Major Myers, with his 
brother, Capt. John Myers, and I, with twen- 
ty men, were sent down toward Berryville, 
while the rest of the brigade moved up to- 
wards Strasburg, eighteen miles south. 

"We found the Federals early in the morn- 
ing, about ten miles north of, and advancing 
upon, Winchester. We drove in their scouts 
and received the compliment of being shelled 
until we had sullenly fallen back to within 
five miles of Winchester, when, much to our 
surprise, a fiag of truce was signaled. We, 
that is to say, Captain Myers and I, with a 
sergeant, went forward to receive the com- 
munication, which turned out to be a demand 
upon the general in command to surrender 
the town of Winchester. Our reply was that 
we must have an hour to forward the de- 



Io6 HE:rot:S and spies 01^ THE CIVIL WAR. 

mand to the general. This was accorded, 
and when the time was up Major Myers re- 
sponded that it was then eleven o'clock A. 
M., and that the place would not be given up 
till 4 P. M., and the terms must be accepted 
or declined at once. They were accepted. 
Whereupon, leaving only a picket of three 
men, we went into Winchester, had a grand 
good-by dinner, finished it by three o'clock ; 
our pickets came in, and by 4 P. M. we were 
two miles from town on our way to Stras- 
burg, when General Elliott sent a colonel at 
the head of a squadron into town to notify 
us that the time was up. Major Myers left 
a note saying that he had enjoyed his dinner 
all the more because he had kept five thou- 
sand of the enemy waiting in the road for him 
to finish eating. As soon as we got there. 
General Rosser took us through the AJlegany 
Mountains on a raid. 

"We started during a very cold spell, with 
three days rations, which most of us ate be- 
fore we started, and by night reached the 
mountains, with snow falling. We rested in 
the snow after a march of thirty miles, and 
waited for morning ; when, cold and hungry, 
we took up our march over the white ridge. 
About four o'clock we came down into the 
Moorfield Valley, to see in front of us a 
Federal train, heavily guarded, on its way to 



RISKY BUSINESS — MORE: STORIES. 107 

the town of Petersburg, W. Va., with sup- 
plies. We charged, and soon had that whole 
train, and pretty much of the whole guard in 
charge of it. We feasted on the good things, 
and after a forced march and great suffer- 
ing, we retraced our way to Harrisonburg, 
with the hope that we would have a long rest. 
But this was not to be allowed us, as in a few 
days the Federal General, MilHgan, who was 
in command of the Union troops at New 
Creek, and who had sent out the train we 
had just captured, sent a flag of truce to Gen- 
eral Rosser, who had been an old school- 
mate, saying that upon a certain day he would 
send another train over the same road 'that 
all hell couldn't take.' General Rosser sent 
back word that he could do what 'all hell' 
could not, and at once we began to get ready 
for that expected train. The weather be- 
came colder; the roads slippery, and for the 
most part, impassable ; but that train must 
be captured. At the right time we started, 
and stayed in the snow one of the coldest 
nights ever known in those mountains. We 
dragged one little gun of Colonel Chew's old 
battery along with us by hand up the steep 
slopes of the mountains, and when we got to 
the top of the ridge we found that General 
Milligan had sent men up the western slope, 
literally dug up and destroyed the whole road 



io8 H£;roe;s and spies oi^ the civii. war. 

for nearly five miles from its crest to its base, 
and had felled all the trees along the road, 
so that it did seem impossible to get down 
into the valley on the west. We let the gun 
and a little ammunition down by ropes, scat- 
tered down the side of that cold mountain 
where there was no road, and got into the 
valley as best we could about three o'clock in 
the evening. 

''We saw that the coveted train was ap- 
proaching ; eleven hundred and sixty-nine in- 
fantry and a squadron of cavalry composed 
the escort, while we did not have over six 
hundred horsemen, nearty one-third of whom 
were dismounted having failed to get their 
horses over, and many disabled from expos- 
ure in that intense cold. Only a few over 
half of our men got over the mountain in 
time to be of any use, but the rest were dis- 
mounted and moved up into the Hne of bat- 
tle in front of that formed by the Federal 
infantry, only a narrow field lying betv/een 
the two confronting forces, and that train 
parked in sight, one hundred and three 
wagons and three ambulances — the paymas- 
ter being along with nearly a quarter of a 
million dollars in one of the ambulances. 
The two lines of men stood there, both hav- 
ing orders not to fire. We were waiting for 
two things — one was a company of cavalry 



RISKY BUSINESS — MORE STORIES. IO9 

sent to threaten their rear, the other to get 
our gun in position unseen. 

"The bluecoats began to think that we 
were waiting for night, to steal off, for they 
called out to us to 'come and take the train.' 
They were behind a rail fence, in line, and 
made a fine show compared with our little 
force ; yet there we stood for an hour or 
more. One big fellow, a sergeant, got over 
the fence on the side next to us, and called 
to us to come and get the train, and was 
cheered by his people. This encouraged 
ihim; he turned his back towards us, and 
showed us his seat of dishonor. For this he 
was cheered more lustily by his men. But just 
^t this instant the joke was turned; the gun 
was ready, and out of a clump of bushes on 
a hill in the rear there came a flash, a roar, 
and the scream of a rifle shell which flew in 
a Hne with the position of that of the bold 
sergeant, and striking the fence where he 
had climbed over it, exploded and sent men 
and rails flying through the air, and spread- 
ing panic around. The teamsters cut loose 
their horses to escape upon them; the scat- 
tered men ran pell-mell to the rear, our cav- 
alry charged, the flying men took to the 
bushes and hills. Of the bold sergeant we 
heard no more, as he retired in disorder. We 
got all of the wagons and two of the am- 



no HER0E:S and SPIe:S of the: civile WAR. 

bulances ; the other was that of the paymas- 
ter, who, with his guard on fine horses, had 
evidently, Hke General Santa Anna 'started 
first,' for he could not be caught, though pur- 
sued five miles by two men. Captain Vandiver 
and myself. 

"We got nearly all the horses that had not 
run away with their riders, and brought out 
supplies such as we could carry; but nearly 
all the wagons were burned, as the road could 
not be passed by wheeled vehicles. We tried 
it, but lost those we tried to bring out. That 
ended our hard march for a while." 

Captain Magruder told of his first case 
while he was yet a student in the office of 
the physician with whom he had read medi- 
cine. He said that during the absence of the 
doctor, two women from the mountains came 
in, bringing with them a great, gawky, over- 
grown boy, as green as he was big, and he 
looked weak. Magruder, resolved to repre- 
sent the doctor, asked what the disease was, 
looked at his tongue, felt his pulse and took 
his temperature. He then asked what they 
had been doing for him. They said that he 
was ''liver grown," and they had been rub- 
bing him with "goose grease." Seeing there 
was very little the matter with him, he told 
them to put red pepper in the goose grease 
and he would get well. They went, and to 



RISKY BUSINESS — MORE: STORIE^S. Ill 

his consternation returned two weeks later, 
when the doctor was in, met him and report- 
ed that the boy was well, much to Magruder's 
relief, for he feared the fellow was dead. 

Dr. John D. Starry, our regimental sur- 
geon, insisted that Lieutenant Marr tell the 
circle about the fire-eating gambler's experi- 
ence at the first battle of Manassas. 

"There was a man in my county before the 
war," said Lieutenant Marr, "who was a 
gambler by profession and a bully by nature. 
By the time he was twenty-five years old he 
had carved up two men over cards, with his 
bowie, and wounded one with a pistol, all for 
some fancied insult. He was considered to 
be a dangerous man, and was avoided by 
those who knew him and did not wish to die 
before their time. 

"When the war broke out and we learned 
that he was made captain of a company of 
brave but rough men, we all felt sorry for 

the Yankees, and one said that Captain C 

would live on raw or roast Yankee. Another 
thought that the Federals would lay down 
their arms when they heard that news, and 
so end the war. Strange to say, they either 
did not know the facts, or failed to give them 
due weight. At the first battle of Manassas, 
the brigade, henceforth to be known as the 
'Stonewall Brigade,' was put in position on 



112 HEROES AND SPIES OlP THE CIVIIv WAR. 

the edge of a pine thicket in front of General 
McDowell's whole army, and ordered not to 
fire, but to crouch down in the pines and take 
the consequences till further orders. Bul- 
lets were flying through the valley, cutting 
ofif leaves, twigs, and our men. I noticed the 

desperate Captain C in rear of his 

company, which was on the left of mine. 
Just then a shell about the size of a dinner 
pot fell near and behind us, plowing up a 
great trench and throwing a cart load of dirt 

into the air. I did not notice Captain C 

again, but learned that when that shell burst 
he threw down his sword and ran all the way 
to the 'junction,' five miles distant. General 
Jackson was induced not to court-martial 
him, but a child could tweak his nose without 
fear from that time." 

Captain Magruder then told of the joke 
we had on the gallant Major, then Capt. Dan. 
Hatcher, of Company A, of the Seventh, the 
successor of Captain Sheets, who was killed 
at Buckton Station, and who had succeeded 
the lamented Captain, afterwards General, 
Turner Ashby. 

"When, after the battle of Cedar Moun- 
tain," said Captain Magruder, "General Lee 
was preparing to advance upon General 
Meade, then at Culpeper Court-House, he 
gave orders that not a soul was to be allowed 



RISKY BUSINESS — MORK STORIES. Il3 

to cross the river in his front, even with a 
written permit. This meant business of the 
gravest sort. 

''Capt. Dan. Hatcher was called by one 
of his sergeants to see a lady who was at the 
river pleading to be allowed to cross. She 
said that the day before she had left at her 
home her five small children, two of whom 
were sick, had come over for her mother, who 
was too ill to go back with her, and that she 
ought to be permitted to go home to her lit- 
tle ones, as there was no grown person with 
jthem. She was a woman of fine, command- 
ing appearance, was pretty, and being flushed 
by excitement as she pointed across the river, 
she made a case so strong that Captain 
Hatcher, who would not have minded a 
frowning battery, was quite captured by sym- 
pathy for the earnest and eloquent woman. 
When she knelt down before him in tears, he 
gave in, and let her cross the river. That 
night she was at General Meade's headquar- 
ters and his army was in full retreat. 

"General Lee made a great effort to find 
out who had crossed, but no one would re- 
port the Captain, as it was too late then, as 
the mischief was done. Captain Hatcher 
said that thereafter the Archangel Gabriel 
should not pass his lines ; that he would say, 
as Gen. Wm. E. Jones did to a lady who 
8 



Il6 HEROICS AND SmnS 01^ THE: CIVII. WAR. 

ments he showed some of his Italian bad 
temper, while he was ever ready to enjoy 
fun at the expense of other people. 

We knew that we would soon be sent over 
the Blue Ridge to operate there, and we de- 
termined to have a soldier banquet on rather 
a larger scale than we had before dared to at- 
tempt, as it was probably the last time we 
would ever be together, the outlook being 
for a hard and bloody campaign. Food was 
so scarce and our Confederate money so plen- 
tiful that the people who had good things 
would not sell them for Confederate money. 
vSo we just took Contre to one side and told 
him that he was the only man that could help 
us out of our dilemma. We knew he had gold 
and that he could get more, and we could not, 
and we assessed him one hundred and twenty- 
five dollars that were dollars sure enough ! 
He seemed to wriggle at first, but after some 
persuasion he said that the banquet should 
be a success, and he counted us down fifteen 
ten-dollar gold pieces, with which to make 
merry, and we did so. 

When we invited the Major, and told him 
that we had in gold the equivalent of ten 
thousand dollars of our money with which 
to buy the ''eatingses," as he called them, he 
laughed all over, as was his habit when he en- 
joyed anything, and said that the General 



A BANQUET AND OTHER THINGS. II7 

ought to send a flag of truce, asking a sus- 
pension of hostilities until the feast was over. 
But if this was not possible, wx might be 
moved from the front and another command 
put on duty. 

We sent out our rangers and bought up all 
the turke3'S, fat pigs, geese, ducks, chickens 
and vegetables. Had real coffee, white sug- 
ar, and tea, and for all those who liked 
them, home-made wines and cider ad libitum. 
We determined that it would not do to have 
such a feast in the midst of a lot of half- 
starved soldiers in camip, so in order to 
heighten our enjoyment, we bought and gave 
two beeves and some fat hogs to the men to 
make a feast for themselves at the same time. 
We secured an old school house a few miles 
in our rear, and then spread our feast, and it 
was a grand one indeed. 

We had as honored guests Lieut. Col. 
Thos. Marshall, Adjutant McCarty, Chap- 
lain Theodore Carson, who was not only a 
good preacher, but a whole-souled, good 
fellow; Doctor John D. Starry, of Charles- 
town, surgeon of the Seventh, Lieutenant 
Vandiver, Capt. John Myers, Lieut. Clarence 
Whiting, of Fauquier, gallant Dan. Hatcher, 
and Lieut. Orlando Smith, a Headly Vickers 
as a Christian soldier ; and some of the men 
who were congenial spirits. 



Il8 HDROKS AND SPIE:S OF TH^ CIVII, WAR. 

It was one peculiarity of the Confederate 
Army that in the ranks many privates were 
found who were men of wealth and had been 
accustomed to luxury — men of great intel- 
lectual attainments and men of refinement, 
and often greatly superior to their officers. 
The author knew many finely educated men 
who would gracefully perform the most 
menial duties out of patriotic motives, who 
had been waited upon all their lives. And 
well does he remember seeing a descendant 
of General Washington's brother, himself a 
large landed proprietor, on police duty, 
sweeping the manure dropped in the camp 
by the horses. It vx^as this spirit, coupled 
with the encouragement of the noblest wo- 
men that ever lived, that made the South 
conquerable only when completely bled to 
death. In the hospital in Staunton, Va., (the 
Blind Asylum used for that purpose), the 
writer has seen, while tying wounded there, 
the noble women of Staunton bring not only 
their luxuries, but take all their own linen 
clothes and scrape them up into lint for the 
wounds of the poor fellows who filled the 
place with over twelve hundred sufferers. 
The ladies from the Stuart, Orpie, Baldwin, 
Harmon, and other leading families vied with 
each other in doing good to their 'Svounded 
boys," as they called us all; while the good 



A BANOUIST AND 0THI:R THINGS. IIQ 

women and girls of the lower valley saw to it 
that our wants were supplied by running the 
blockade to Baltimore, and bringing out, un- 
der their skirts, hats and other scarce things 
for the soldiers. But whenever the girls got 
their eyes on a man they thought ought to 
join the army, and who was backward in com- 
ing forvv^ard, they would send him a hoop- 
skirt and a night-cap, with a ruffle around it, 
and request him to ''try that, and if it did not 
become him, then to put on a suit of gray." 
That brought him to camp without stopping 
to say good-by to his best girl. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FUN^ FIGHTING AND FACTS. 

In Winchester the women were so glad 
to meet the returning Confederates that our 
men had to cease firing as we rode through 
the town in pursuit of General Banks' flying 
troops, for fear of killing the women who 
ran into the streets to kiss and load us with 
whatever might please in the way of their 
few remaining luxuries. The Brents, Rileys, 
Baldwins, Conrads, Hollidays, Williamses, 
Bartons, Carsons, and indeed the devoted 
ladies of the whole place, for their own safety 
laid aside their feminine fears and were ready 
to almost worship the wearers of the gray 
jackets, while instances of the bravery of 
other women were noted. 

Mrs. Colonel Warren, sister of Captain 
Magruder, and whose husband and five 
brothers were killed, lived on a farm with her 
four small children, unprotected by any man. 
Being near Harrisonburg and near the great 
Vallev Road, she was often threatened, and 



FUN^ :^IGHTING AND ^ACTS. 121 

entrance to her home attempted at night. 
She kept a loaded revolver, and would often 
fire upon any one who threatened trouble, 
and did wound one man, after which such 
visitors became more scarce. 

Miss Beale, a sister of John Y. Beale, who 
was hanged as a spy, a schoolmate of the 
writer and one of the noblest spirits that God 
ever created, was called upon by a squad of 
Federal infantry with an order to search the 
house. She politely took them all through 
the house; they looked in trunks and clos- 
ets, in beds, and even in band-boxes, and 
found that none but ladies were in the house. 
One lingered at the head of a long flight of 
stairs that led down into the inside entry, and 
as she was showing him out that way he in- 
sulted her. Her quick Southern blood boiled 
over; on the instant, his face being toward 
her, she bounded against him with all her 
might so suddenly that backwards he went 
down the steps, while she saved herself by 
holding on to the latch of the door. He was 
taken up seriously crippled and moved to the 
hospital, where he died. To his honor it can 
be said that when General Hancock heard of 
it and was urged to have her arrested he said, 
''No ! I glory in the spirit of that girl, and 
will have any man shot who will offer such an 
indignity to any defenseless woman." 



122 HE;rOE:S and SPIE:S O^ TH^ civile WAR. 

As Captain Magruder and Surgeon Centre 
were returning from Staunton to camp, they 
talked of the great change that war made in 
men, or rather the effect of developing the 
natural tendency to disregard the rights of 
others, and to steal when there was little 
value or use, if any, in the thing stolen. Marr 
illustrated by telling of a Union soldier who 
stole from a farm house in Orange County 
a guano sieve, or sifter, five feet long, two 
feet wide, and that weighed seventy-eight 
pounds, and which he put down after carry- 
ing it for half a mile. He also said that when 
the Confederates were passing through 
Chambersburg, Pa., and his regiment was 
halted in the road on the edge of the town, 
about 9 o'clock P. M., his attention was at- 
tracted by seeing a strange looking object 
on the other side of a board fence that en- 
closed a lot adjoining the road. It was a 
large white object and was moving slowly 
towards the spot where he was. While 
watching to see what strange creature this 
vv^as, his horse made a slight jump to one side 
and became very restless. Nearby he heard 
the buzz of a bee, and called out 'Svho goes 
there," in a suppressed stage whisper a man 
said, "It is me. I've got a bee gum under 
this sheet ; there is one more if you want it." 



FUN^ I^IGHTING AND i^ACTS. 1 23 

''If there was anything I did not want just 
then," said Marr, "it was a bee-gum." 

On another occasion, being gathered 
about our mess fire, Contre said, "As we 
have neither books, paper, nor hghts, let us 
have some stories. Captain Magruder." 

"All right, Doctor, but you must tell us 
your experiences; you make Marr and me 
furnish all the stock. Now I'll tell you about 
the charge led by Stonewall. It was about 
seven o'clock of the morning after our cap- 
ture of Buckton Station and Port Republic, 
when we learned that General Banks was in 
full retreat from Strasburg to Winchester, 
that General Jackson put himself at the head 
of about two hundred of our brigade and 
went across to the high ridge that runs par- 
allel to the great Valley Pike; from that 
ridge we could see the great bulk of General 
Banks' army, infantry, artillery, cavalry and 
supply trains, pouring like a torrent down 
that road, all trying to make the best possible 
time in the effort to reach Winchester with- 
out being cut off. General Jackson stopped 
on the top of the hill and beckoned General 
Ashby there, then pointed down the little 
narrow, rocky, red-clay road that, shut in 
by stonefences, led down to the main turn- 
pike. A few words were exchanged by these 
gallant men, each doomed to die for the 



124 hi:roes and spies of the civil war. 

cause so dear to him, and both to be shot by 
their own men. I noticed that General 
Jackson pulled his tight-fitting skull cap over 
his head and eyes, then without a word he 
stuck spurs to 'Old Sorrel,' and galloped 
down the rough, rocky way as though he was 
trying to break his neck. 

"Neither Ashby nor Ashby's men were 
the kind to look on at such a charge, and 
down the hill they went pellmell, yelling as 
if crazy. Across the mouth of this lane, at 
its intersection with the main road, was 
posted the Twelfth Michigan Cavalry, a regi- 
ment the boast of their State, all mounted by 
the State on blooded horses; and three bat- 
teries, supported by two brigades of infantry 
were so located as to enfilade the lane; but 
all the troops in General Banks' army could 
not resist that charge. The crack Michigan 
regiment had over two hundred saddles emp- 
tied by that shock, the rest rode over and 
panicked the teamsters; most of the teams 
and artillery went towards Winchester, run- 
ning over or through all troops in their way. 
About four thousand of General Banks' col- 
umn, thus cut off from the main body, had to 
take to the mountains and strike across 
towards Cumberland. Many of them were 
so demoralized as never to be fit for service 
asrain. 



I^UN, I^IGHTING AND FACTS. 1 25 

''Now, Lieutenant Marr, you must tell us a 
story, for Contre either don't know any or 
is ashamed of such as he does know," said 
Captain Magruder. 

"If I must, I think I will give you an ac- 
count of a funny little incident that occurred 
at first Manassas," said Marr. "I was a pri- 
vate in that command when it was gathered 
at Harper's Ferry, where Major T. J. Jack- 
son (afterwards known as 'Stonewall Jack- 
son') was sent to take command and organ- 
ize the forces. His brigade was formed then 
and he took command of it, having been su- 
perseded in command of the general force 
there by that able strategist, Gen. Joseph E. 
Johnston. He marched us back and forth 
every day, and at least half of every night, 
of which we afterwards saw the benefit. In- 
deed a com.mittee of prominent men from 
the lower valley went to Richmond and repre- 
sented to President Davis that Jackson was 
unfit to command gentlemen, and was killing 
up their sons by hard and useless marching, 
and urged his removal and the substitution 
of a better man. Suddenly the call came for 
General J. E. Johnston to hasten to the help 
of General Beauregard, then in command at 
Manassas. Jackson's brigade having been 
well hardened by his hard drills and marches, 
took the lead, and was really the only part 



126 he:roe:s and spie:s o^ the: civil war. 

of Johnston's army to get there in time to go 
into the battle as an organization, and but 
for its presence defeat would have been cer- 
tain for the Confederates. I belonged to 
Company G, of the Second Virginia Infantry. 
There was a member of the same company, 

S by name; he was a Northern man, 

a regular 'down-easter.' He took no interest 
in the cause of the South, as he had never 
looked upon Virginia as his home. He was 
not spoiling for a fight ; in fact, he was badly 
scared, as many a good fellow was that day. 
Our position was in the edge of a pine thick- 
et, facing toward the Lewis and Henry 
houses, with a mass of 30,000 of General 
McDowell's arm.y in our front. Our orders 
were not to fire, just to crouch down in the 
leaves and take the fire, as we only had 3,300 
men. This we did for four hours, though 
we fully expected an order to advance or 
charge. 

''S said, 'Now boys, I want you all 

to bear me witness and understand that when 
the order comes to advance I shall not be 
able to move, as I have sprained my ankle,' 
and then he groaned aloud that he should 
be disabled at such a time. A little later our 
artillery was so raked by the enemy's guns 
that it w^as removed nearly a quarter of a 
mile to the rear to a ridge. Then it became 



FUN^ :^IGHTING AND FACTS. I 27 

necessary for us to be stationed farther back, 
as we were flanked. The order was given and 
it was explained that we would fall back 
through the thicket and form a new line in 
the rear. The pines prevented any retire- 
ment as an organization. 

"When I got back to the new line I saw 
-, and said, 'How did vou get back 



here so soon, with your sprained ankle?' 

''He said, 'O, I declare I forgot I had any 
ankle when I heard the order to fall back !' " 

Captain Magruder said: 

"That S 's story reminds me of the 

old Dutch Union soldier we captured near 
Middletown. The company was composed 
largely of Dutchmen who had not been very 
many months in this country, and who spoke 
English very imperfectly. When asked to 
what part of the army he belonged, he said: 
'I fights mit Seigel.' 

"We found the old fellow pretty talkative, 
not in the least disturbed at having been 
captured. We got around him and induced 
him to tell us about his enlistment and ex- 
perience in the Federal Army, and I will tell 
you it in his own language : 

" 'Vel, we comxCS by Nu Yorrick, and den 
the mans say dere so m.uch as never vas 
mooney for to go to der war. Me and my 
prodder see by the offis as two mans vanted, 



I 28 HER0E:S and spies O^ Tut civil. WAR. 

vat dey gall yubstitoots; dat ish to go right 
in hish place, and say he gib more as three 
hunder tollars. Dat vas so better as goot, 
an my prodder he say, ''Hans, lets v^e drade 
wif dese fellers." Veil I say "Ya," and ve 
comes to a high blace, all govered mit vlags 
and dey beete the drum; ve shoost goes in 
mit de osifer; he made we bofe dake off our 
close and put on the soger close, and in tree 
days ve coom by de garrs to Vashington vere 
ve drill all the days; and den dey zend us 
to Cumberland, den day say Shacksen he 
gone, an dey put us on garrs and dravels us 
to Sharlton; dey zay, Shacksen he at Vin- 
chester, and ven ve cooms to Vinchester, and 
ven ve git dere, some mans dey cooms runs 
in de gamp and zay, "Shacksen cooms, 
Schacksen he cooms," and den ve shoost hav 
to go all de vay pack, and den all you uns 
cooms and zay, "You shoost but down dem 
guns," and Shacksen he shoost got us all.' 
And the old fellow would 'Ya, ya' as if he 
thought himself fortunate to have been cap- 
tured." 

Marr then told of the trick some of the 
men of his company played upon him the 
night of the last day's battle at Gettysburg. 
He said: 

"We had been fighting heavy odds all day ; 
the part of the field where we fought was 



FUN, FLIGHTING AND :?ACTS. 1 29 

called Fairfield, which was for the time 
about as inappropriate a name as could have 
been found. Our one brigade was pitted all 
day against three brigades of the Bluecoats, 
by the absence of General Stuart with the 
bulk of his cavalry and the horse artillery. 
We were overmatched, and were all glad when 
we found that the blue riders were content to 
rest and allow^ us to rest. Indeed that was 
all the night brought us, as our commissary 
department had lost itself as well as us. My 
horse having been shot in the charge made 
that evening, which gave me a pretty hard 
fall and left me sore as well as worn out, 1 
lay down to enjoy a little exemption from 
the sadness and gloom which the heavy loss 
and fatal repulse our army had met with that 
day cast over us. Sorrow and fatigue soon 
did their work, and I slept the sleep of the 
worn-out man, when I was startled about 
two o'clock by being shaken and called loudly 
by Minnick and Moore, two mien of my com- 
pany, who explained that after we had lain 
down without food that they and others of 
the men could not sleep for hunger; that 
they got up and went three miles off to a 
house and bought sixteen ducks, two pieces 
of pork and enough bread and vegetables 
to feed our whole company. They had 
bought two large kettles and had supper and 



130 MER0E:S and spies O^ the: civil. WAR. 

hot duck soup ready, and I must go with 
them. I went, and no more hungry or ap- 
preciative set of men ever feasted on a more 
hearty supper of duck soup. Indeed, I might 
say breakfast too, for we had just eaten when 
a little after four o'clock we received orders 
to mount quietly and march to a point where 
the Federal cavalry were trying to cut ofif our 
retreating train. 

"That day Captain Brown, of the Sixth 
Virginia, on his way to rejoin his command, 
had come up and proposed that we should 
ride to the top of a high hill from which we 
could see the infantry battle then raging be- 
tween the Blue and the Gray. I declined to 
go, as we were only having a little lull in our 
own fight, and I thought the right place for 
a soldier was in his own command. 

''The Captain did not reHsh my refusal to 
go half a mile off to see a fight when we saw 
one nearly every day. I went over to my 
station, and soon we were hotly engaged for 
some hours. After which some one spoke 
of 'poor Captain Brown.' I asked why they 
said 'poor Captain Brown,' and learned that 
when he left me he rode to the top of the 
hill, to which he had invited me to accom- 
pany him, and that just as he reached that 
point, a round shot took his head clear off. 



^UN^ LIGHTING AND FACTS. I3I 

"The next day I overheard one of our men 
tell another how they had gotten the ducks 
for supper; that they must not let me know 
it, but they had tried to buy them in vain, 
and only then had they taken their sabres 
and decapitated them and 'impressed them 
into the service.' The other food materials 
used in the supper were 'impressed into the 
service' also. As I had prevented the seiz- 
ure of supphes, in accordance with General 
Lee's orders, the men got the food they must 
have by strategy. I often heard men talk 
after that about what good soup Pennsyl- 
vania ducks made, if the ducks were only 
taken as a military necessity." 

News began to pass from one to another 
that an order had come calling us over to 
Gordonsville, south of which a part of Gen- 
eral R. E. Lee's army was encamped. And 
sure enough, at dress parade the order was 
read, the useless feature of which was "that 
we were to cook three days' rations," while 
we only had issued to us enough worfi^y 
hard-tack to last us one day. This needed 
no cooking, unless it was to make the worms 
more digestible. The next day we crossed 
the mountains, and two days later moved 
down to Orange Court-House. Captain 
Magruder and Lieutenant Marr were sent 
with a squadron to guard a ford on the Madi- 



132 he:roe:s and spies of the: civii. war. 

son River, which the Yankees seemed to 
have a hankering after. They were keeping 
a sharp watch and a double guard upon it, 
when one clear morning, just at sunrise they 
heard the firing of their pickets, and hurried 
with the squadron to reinforce them. 

They made it as hot as possible for them; 
but to prevent their passage was impos- 
sible, as the Federals had three brigades of 
cavalry and one of infantry, and were com- 
ing to see them anyhow. They fell back, 
skirmishing as best they could with them as 
they came, until they got to a very thick pine 
woods, heavy with undergrowth, into which 
they rode to let the enemy pass. After he 
had gone by. Captain Magruder went out to 
the road in their rear, picked up and made 
prisoner an aide of the general in command 
of the expedition, and brought him, greatly 
to his surprise, into the bushes. Lieutenant 
Marr says : "I then went to see whether they 
were heading towards Orange Court-House 
or not, and had moved cautiously up the road 
to get a clearer view of their route, when 
suddenly a squadron of their cavalry that had 
been concealed in the woods came rushing 
towards me. I turned about and made for 
the spot where I had left Captain Magruder 
with our squadron, and was within half a 
mile of their position when I heard quick. 



JfUN, I^IGHTING AND ^ACTS. 1 33 

sharp jfiring, just where I had left them. I 
turned off sHghtly, came within sight of the 
spot, and could hear the firing of the pur- 
suers of my squadron, and what was of more 
imminent personal concern, saw that the 
squadron in pursuit of m^e were not disposed 
to slacken their pace. It looked very blue 
for me. A hundred mounted riflemen in pur- 
suit and four brigades of the enemy scattered 
in front of me. My hope lay in not being hit, 
so, deflecting towards the town, now about 
twelve miles distant, I rode through the 
thicket and bushes as much as possible, so 
as to shake them off, as they seemed more 
than ordinarily bent upon my capture. 

"Having been a prisoner once, I deter- 
miined to make my escape. I rode one of the 
fleetest horses in the brigade, celebrated for 
its fine stock. I soon came to som.e old 
fields that had been fenced once, but were 
now grown up with scrub pine, tall enough 
to hide a m.an on horseback. Through these 
and over fence after fence I went, and yet 
could see my foes, who kept a constant fire 
at me. I saw ahead of me from a hill a mill- 
pond spread out in the little valley below, 
and that the road made a long course to the 
northward to cross above the pond, so, bend- 
ing my way to the south, I made for the cen- 
ter of the pond after jumping the highest 



134 hi:roes and spies o^ the civile war. 

and strongest fence I had encountered in the 
ride down the steep hill. Through the 
bushes I went, and plunged into the pond, 
which was deep even at the shore, and over 
horse deep towards its center. The strong 
fence on the hill had, as I hoped, balked the 
enemy for a little time, though they kept up 
their firing. I had gained a Uttle by the 
fence, but lost time in the deep water; but 
through I went, the noble horse seeming to 
know that he was going for life. I gained 
the far side and plunged into the thick for- 
est that came down to the water's edge, and 
then I could see that my followers were at 
last convinced that they had better give up 
the chase. 

*'I came to a house half an hour after hear- 
ing the bugle call the Bluecoats that had fol- 
lowed me off the chase ; there fed my horse, 
and then, guided by the sound of hot firing, 
rode on to where the fight seemed to be 
most earnest, and came up to my own bri- 
gade, hard at it with a force that had crossed 
in the morning in their front; and not long 
after I rejoined my command." 

About this time a courier rode up to Gen- 
eral Stuart and told him that three other 
brigades of the enemy, that had crossed at 
the ford five miles further north, were then 
coming up squarely in his rear and had al- 



^UN^ LIGHTING AND ?ACTS. 1 35 

ready engaged some of his men. This meant 
that we were enclosed by two greatly su- 
perior forces converging upon us. General 
Stuart placed the guns of Chew's battery in 
the road, so that two pointed to the north 
and two south, and in this queer position 
they were served just as fast as they could 
be handled, but even this did not drive back 
either of their lines. Stuart determined to 
break through the line that lay between him 
and the Court-House, and which had made 
itself secure by a heavy breast-work of fence 
rails; as to fight two lines of battle not 
over half a mile apart, and he between them, 
could not be done, so he ordered Captain 
Magruder to get together as many men as 
he could and make a desperate charge upon 
the line that had cut us off, and if that failed 
he would be cut to pieces. 

Already our troops were much disorgan- 
ized, as they saw the situation and knew that 
we were beaten. Captain Magruder, with 
Lieutenant Marr, called out to the men to 
follow, and side by side they headed for the 
enemy's breastworks right through the thin 
pine woods ; hurled their force upon the hos- 
tile line, which, with one terrific volley, emp- 
tied many of our saddles and then they broke ; 
we sabred them as they fled to their ap- 



136 HEROKS AND SPIES OF THE CIVIIv WAR. 

preaching forces, which enabled us to get 
our out guns, and made them draw off. 

The victory at the battle of Jack's Shop 
was ours. General Lee then formed a divis- 
ion of his troops and escorted the enemy 
back over the river whence he came. True, 
that victory was dearly bought by us ! Lieu- 
tenant Marr had lost his dearest friend, Cap- 
tain Magruder, who was killed at his side, 
with three minnie bullets in his chest in a tri- 
angle that could be covered with the palm 
of the hand. He must have been dead be- 
fore he fell, as not less than two balls had 
pierced his heart. Strong men wept like 
children as he was brought out and carried 
to the house of his father, his childhood's 
home, which was in sight of the spot where 
he fell. 

Marr mourned the loss of a friend with 
whom he had lived in such close relation- 
ship, and could say that notwithstanding all 
the trials of temper pecuHar to war and its 
privations, not an unkind word or thought 
had ever disturbed the love and confidence 
that he and Magruder had for each other. 
He was detailed to take the body to his he- 
roic old father, and assist in the last rites 
that we sadly observe as all we can do for our 
loved and lost ones. He took the effects of 
his dead friend, except his Bible, which he 



]?UN, :^IGHTING AND I^ACTS. 1 37 

found had been presented by Miss Nora 
Bankhead to the Captain. This he sent by 
a courier to her, with a message of the death 
of her and his own loved friend, only to re- 
ceive back the Bible with the request that he 
would accept it not only from her, but as 
from them both. Of course it was precious 
to him and was laid up as a valued treasure. 

Not long after this battle the Federal force 
was thrown forv/ard across the Rappahan- 
nock River, and General Stuart engaged him 
near Brandy Station, on the John Minor 
Botts farm, a splendid, gently sloping plain, 
just a charming place for a battle. 

The Federals were in great force. Gen- 
eral Meade's whole cavalry and a division of 
infantry being engaged, while Stuart had no 
infantry and only half as much cavalry as he 
had to meet. The forces became greatly 
scattered in the fight, and different com- 
mands badly mixed up. The Federals broke 
through one part of our line and drove off 
one of Stuart's regiments, following them 
nearly a mile to the rear. The gap was not 
closed, as Confederates did not rely much 
upon organization, but fighting went on all 
around, each one pitching in where he could 
see a foe to strike. 

Captain Marr saw a bluecoated cavalryman 
driving a Confederate afoot before him, a 



138 HEROE^S AND SPIEJS O]? THE^ CIVIL WAR. 

prisoner, and made for him. Coming upon 
him he reversed the order, made the Federal 
dismount and trot back, v^hile the Confeder- 
ate did the driving with the other fellow's 
horse and gun. This he evidently enjoyed 
none the less because the tables had been 
turned so unexpectedly. 

Captain Marr then heard a loud call, and, 
looking around, saw General Stuart in the 
main road facing up our rear, having his 
sabre drawn, the cause of which Marr soon 
saw to be the approach of nine Federal cav 
alrymen, who had gone clear through our 
lines, and were now trying to get back to 
their own side, when they found General 
Stuart in their pathway, with a look of such 
determination and defiance as plainly showed 
that all of them would not be allowed to 
pass. In a moment Marr was at his side, 
and seeing this, all nine of them threw up 
their hands and surrendered. General Stuart 
said, ''Old fellow, if you had not come in time 
I would have had trouble with these lusty 
fellows. Please take them back and turn 
them over to the first laggard you find ; there 
is a lot of them who ought to be here. Bring 
up as many as you can, as we have got to 
ferry these Yanks over the river in time for 
supper." 



FUN, FIGHTING AND FACTS. 139 

As the summer of this year wore along, 
the cavalry were kept busy marching, fight- 
ing, and guarding the movements of the in- 
fantry. On one occasion, former Lieutenant, 
now Captain, Marr, was ordered to take his 
squadron and march to the old Chancellors- 
ville House, scout over that section and 
picket Ely's and the United States Fords in 
the rear of the Chanccllorsville field. 
In telling about the movement, he says : 
''I started, marched all day, and entered 
the dense and gloomy wilderness after dark, 
with a heavy black storm coming up rapidly, 
which soon made it so dark that further pro- 
gress was impossible, and as the horses were 
falling down every few minutes, or getting 
into holes, I determined to dismount, make 
the horses fast to the trees, wait for the 
storm to abate and the moon to rise, which 
would be at one or two o'clock in the morn- 
ing. Fire was out of the question, as heavy 
rains had soaked all the wood that might 
otherwise have been dry; that is, if anything 
ever gets dry in that swamp, which is at its 
best one of the most dismal places on earth. 
So, tired out, we lay down to get such rest 
as only a weary soldier can. I noticed the 
strange behavior of our horses, which seem- 
ed to be scared at something, and would 
snort and try to break loose. Late in the 



I40 he:roi;s and spies of the civil war. 

night the storm broke away, the rain ceased 
and the moon came out. I had not slept, be 
ing wet thoroughly, but, on turning over, i 
bright ray of moonlight fell full on the face 
of a bleached skeleton right before me. 1 
arose to find that we had bivouacked where 
the spot was full of half-dug graves and half 
buried bodies, and that our horses, on step 
ing into these holes and even getting the.r 
feet entangled among the bones, had not 
reHshed the place that had been made their 
camp." 

The summer had now been spent in the 
swaying back and forth of the army, which, 
Uke a great pendulum, had at one time been 
into the heart of Virginia, and at another time 
in Pennsylvania ; had been marched and coun- 
ter-marched, leaving a broad trail of blood 
and ruin in its wake, and was now hoping for 
a winter's rest. 

General Ashby had been killed at Port Re- 
public; General Jackson had fallen at Chan- 
cellorsville. Hard times were setthng down 
upon the Southland, and wise men began to 
realize that the South was being worn to a 
frazzle ; death in every command was getting 
to be of daily occurrence, as no day passed 
without a cavalry skirmish, and often heavy 
fighting. Major Myers was put in command 
of the skirmishers of the Laurel Brigade, and 



i^UN, I^IGH'TING AND FACTS. I4I 

his affection for Captain Marr was so strong 
that he must always have him with his com- 
pany, as, the Major said, "they were such 
good marksmen." They were all men who 
had been raised in the mountains of Rocking- 
ham and Shenandoah Counties. Not one of 
them would shoot a squirrel or plover ex- 
cept through its head, and that they would 
never miss. They were all armed with rifles 
and always shot to hit, and were splendid 
soldiers. 

Often Captain Marr would gladly have 
preferred some other expression of the Ma- 
jor's regard, but it was only for him to ac- 
cept the honor as it was intended, and go 
whenever the Major could get up an excuse 
for a skirmish. Indeed, the boys said that he 
could not sleep without a full meal or a fight, 
and as it was easier to get the fight, it fol- 
lowed that he kept them at it nearly all the 
time. One morning Captain Marr was or- 
dered to take twenty picked men and go to 
the river and engage the enemy until the 
regiment could come up ; but was told that 
an engagement of general character was to 
be avoided if possible, therefore the regi- 
ment would be held back. Upon reaching a 
point near the river, he found that the Fed- 
erals were on his side of the stream, a bri- 
gade or more strong, and that a squadron 



142 HEJRO^S AND SPIEJS O^ TH^ CIVII. WAR. 

were advancing towards him with their line of 
sharpshooters in front. He said that when 
the detail of two men from each of the ten 
companies called for had presented them- 
selves and were undergoing inspection has- 
tily, he came to one man named Giles, of 
Company C, who said to him as he handed 
the officer his rifle, "Captain, please don't 
take me." He knew the man personally, 
knew that he was brave, and struck by the 
mournfulness in his tone, he at once called 
for another man. When he was furnished, he 
went forward, and the skirmish lasted nearly 
all day. Several of his men were wounded, 
but none killed, and when he returned to the 
regiment on the other side of the high hill 
behind which the troops were collected and 
came to the command, he found a detail 
burying a man. He asked who it was, and 
learned that it was the body of Giles, of Com- 
pany C, who had been excused by him in the 
morning, and that he had said he had a pre- 
monition that he would be killed that day, 
and had asked to be let off, and while lying 
on his side, with his back towards the direc- 
tion of the skirmishers, and while in the act 
of telling his messmates of it, a bullet had 
struck the back of his head and knocked his 
brains into the faces of the men with whom 
he was talking. The supposition was that a 



l^UN^ LIGHTING AND I^ACTS. 1 43 

ball from one of the long-range guns fired 
at Captain Marr's party had struck high; 
struck the under side of a limb of a great oak 
tree on the hill and then deflected down in 
the direction of the men, and so fulfilled his 
premonition. 

Strange incidents are numerous to the 
careful observer at all times, and especially 
in times of war. Captain Marr says that he 
has seen men die from a mere scratch. One 
of his men, Isaac Acker by name, up to the 
third year of the war had not been in a bat- 
tle, and he believed that if ever he went into 
one he would surely be killed. Captain Marr 
thought that the time had come, owing to 
the loss of men, when Acker should take his 
part in the fighting, so he made him ride by 
his side at the battle of Cedar Mountain, and 
when the command to charge was given, he 
pricked the mettled horse of Acker with his 
sabre and ordered the man forward at his 
side. They went in together, but poor Acker 
was killed by the first volley, and the Cap- 
tain regretted that he had not exempted the 
poor fellow from that charge, though it was 
his duty to see that all his men did their 
best. He always thought this man a moral 
coward. The same man had a brother, a 
large, fine and brave soldier, who in charges 
would ride up to the front man of the enemy 



144 hi:roe;s and spie;s o^ thk civil war. 

and plunge his sabre through him, evidently 
not knov^ing w^hat fear meant; and yet any 
one could take a dead snake, a toad, or a cat 
and chase him out of the camp; and if he 
v^ere pursued too close, he w^ould go into 
convulsions; so v^e had to stop the fun the 
boys had at his expense by giving notice, 
v^ith the consent of the general commanding, 
that he would kill on the spot any that would 
try to frighten him. 

In one of the skirmishes at Brandy Station, 
Captain Marr charged a squadron of the Fed- 
erals, drove them back upon their line of bat- 
tle where the Eighth Illinois Cavalry was 
posted, and tried to capture a man who 
had been unhorsed. He had the man in a 
trot to bring him out, when a trooper fired 
at him ; he felt a sharp pain and a blow in his 
side. He started out through the pines at a 
gallop, but as he went he noticed a Federal 
soldier riding alongside of him, keeping up 
with him, but not paying any attention to 
him. As Captain Marr felt sick from the 
shot in his side, he had as much as he could 
do to avoid being dashed against the trees 
as he rode through the timber ; but when he 
got to his men and reined up his horse, the 
Federal trooper's horse also stopped. Men 
secured his rein and then saw that the man 
was ■ dead and had strapped himself to the 



^VN, I^IGHTING AND FACTS. 1 45 

saddle before he was killed. His horse had 
gone along with that of Captain Marr of its 
own volition. Captain Marr looked like a 
dead man when the surgeon came and found 
that the bullet of the Eighth Illinois trooper 
had struck him on the plate of his sabre belt 
— which was a very thick and pretty one, cap- 
tured at Mnnassas, and had belonged to a 
Federal general. The ball had gone partially 
through the plate and stuck fast in it, so that 
it could not be moved either way; the wound 
from the blow was an ugly one. 

One day near Culpeper Court-House, 
while Colonel Dulany, Colonel Marshall, Ma- 
jor Myers, and several other ofificers were 
observing the movements of the enemy, a 
shot was fired at them by a sharpshooter 
fully a mile off. The ball struck Captain 
Kuykendal, of the Seventh Virginia Cavalry, 
on his sabre plate with a thud that could be 
heard many feet away. It doubled the Cap- 
tain up into such a knot that he had to be 
carried off the field ; it indented, but did not 
penetrate the plate. 

The summer of '63 had passed, and the 
Laurel Brigade was ordered to Falling 
Spring, in Rockbridge County, Virginia, to 
recruit and fill up its ranks for the spring 
campaign, and went into real winter quarters 
during the last days of January. 
10 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE) CI.OSING OF CONTRE'S CAREER. 

About the loth of February, Doctor Con- 
tre came to our Rockbridge County Camp, 
saying that as he had a Httle time on his 
hands he had come to stay with his old friends 
for a week, and asked Marr to let him share 
his tent and bed for that time, which was 
readily agreed to. 

That night Marr overheard Contre talk- 
ing in his sleep. Twice he said "fifty thou- 
sand in gold," and then he said ''the Cave," 
then "Port RepubUc," then "Annie." Marr 
shook him, and was about to go to sleep, 
when he heard Contre repeat the words 
"fifty thousand in gold," "Annie." The next 
morning Marr, who had been sleeplessly 
thinking over Contre's sleep talk and its pos- 
sible meaning, and who had not slept him- 
self, thought that he had made a discovery, 
and said in a rather abrupt m.anner to the 
Doctor, "We are alone, and you ought to 
tell me of your dream of last night, for you 



the: CI.OSING OF contre:'s careeir. 147 

talked in your sleep." The Doctor became 
greatly confused, and Marr thought rather 
mad ; he was very particular to find out what 
he had said ; begged Marr to tell him all that 
he had said. Marr said : ''You talked pretty 
freely about Annie, and as you have never 
mentioned her name to me while awake, of 
course I got into the secret." He was very 
importunate to learn whether he had spoken 
about anything else. Not discovering that he 
had, he said, "I will tell you all about the girl, 
but not now." That day when our mail came 
in from Richmond Centre went to Marr and 
said : "I cannot spend longer time with you 
now. Must go to Richmond at once," and he 
left. Suspicion of Contre had taken deep hold 
upon Marr, and as part of the sleep talk had 
good foundation, he felt that there was a 
"nigger in the wood pile." 

The next day Col. Thos. Marshall secured 
him a furlough of a week and a pass to Rich- 
mond. 

On arrival, said Marr: ''I went to Col. 
A. R. Boteler, formerly of Stonewall Jack- 
son's staff, and said, 'Colonel, I want to see 
President Davis, and just as soon as possible.' 
He replied, 'It is a pretty hard thing to ask. 
Mr. Davis works day and night, and can be 
seen only when the public interest requires 
it.' I said, 'Colonel, I must see him, and you 



148 he:roi;s and spiels of the; civii. war. 

can say that the public good alone is my mo- 
tive/ In an hour he came to me at the 
Spottswood Hotel and said, 'Come with me, 
but this is not for any personal privilege to 
be asked.' We were ushered into a waiting- 
room, and in a little while I was called for and 
introduced to President Davis. Colonel 
Boteler left, as did the only attendant of the 
President. I said, 'Mr. President, there is 
a young Confederate surgeon by the name of 
Contre. If you will allow me, I think I can 
convince you that he is a Federal spy, of no 
ordinary ability. I have no absolute proof, 
but such a chain of circumstantial evidence 
that his mission can be clearly shown up.' 
Mr. Davis heard me through, my statement 
closing with the talk overheard in sleep. He 
studied for a while, then handed me two 
cards, saying: 'Take this one to the Secre- 
tary of War, he will see you; tell him just 
what you have said to me. The other card 
will admit you to my residence at eleven 
o'clock to-night. Say nothing to any one 
else upon this matter.' 

"I went to the office of the War Secretary, 
James A. Sedden, who received me promptly, 
listened carefully, and then said: 'Doctor Con- 
tre is known to many of the officials of the 
Government, and I caution you to be care- 
ful in your statements/ That night I went 



mt CI.OSING OF contre's car]Se:r. 149 

to the President's mansion; found there be- 
sides Mr. Davis, the Secretary of War ; Sec- 
retary of the Navy, Mr. Mallory, and a man 
dressed in plain clothes, whose name was not 
mentioned during the long interview. After 
I had made my statement in full, with the 
criminating circumstances, Mr. Davis turned 
to the Secretary of the Navy and said, 'Mal- 
lory, I believe you have stood sponsor for 
Contre, what do you think of Captain Marr's 
story?' 'Mr. President,' said Mr. Mallory, 
'Contre has secured me direct and correct 
information of the plans and movements of 
the enemy, and at the risk of his Hfe, and 
now, while I think that Captain Marr has cer- 
tainly told us remarkable things, we cannot 
act hastily with one who has so much in his 
favor. I suggest that we have Contre closely 
watched, and if there is anything wrong with 
him we will soon know it. He is to be mar- 
ried to a Richmond girl soon.' 

"All arose as if to leave, when I said, 'Mr. 
President, may I say one thing more?' 
'Yes,' he said. I then said, 'Mr. President, 
Contre ran no risk in getting such informa- 
tion as he has brought to you. He did take 
out facts of great importance to the enemy, 
and was stuffed with just such information as 
could be provided against by subsequent 
changes. And as for watching him, he is 



150 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVII. WAR. 

more than a match for all the detective force 
of the Government.' At this all looked to- 
wards the man present in business suit. He 
looked red, and rather confused. Mr. Davis 
bowed to me, whereupon I left, but could not 
fail to notice that they all looked puzzled as 
Mr. Davis said, 'Wait and see.' 

"After leaving the President and nearing" 
my hotel, I heard my name called, and look- 
ing up, saw Doctor Contre, who was greatly 
surprised at seeing me, and manifested a 
great desire to know what brought me to 
Richmond. I declined to tell him then, as 
I wished to pump him fully. Just said that 

I was in a hurry to see a friend I had not seen 
for a long time. He said, 'I am very busy 
myself, and will be to-morrow, but want you 
to take supper with me to-morrow night at 

II o'clock,' and handed me a card with the 
name and number of house o£ Elizabeth L. 
Van Lew, south side of Grace Street, saying 
that he had his room and supplies there, and 
that he wanted to introduce me to a dear 
friend of his. 

*'I accepted his invitation, but knowing 
how smart he was, and that he already knew, 
or soon would know, that I had tried to ef- 
fect his arrest, I made up my mind to watch 
him and never for a moment allow him the 
drop on me. I looked up the location of 



tut CI.0S1NG OF CONTRES CAREER. 15 1 

Miss Van Lew's house, and found that it was 
a good mile from the Spottswood ; occupied 
a whole square and was dark and dreary look- 
ing. I had met my old friend and soldier of 
the Stonewall Brigade, Capt. George W. Bay- 
lor, in Richmond, and asked him to go with 
me and see what those fellows were up to, 
telling him enough to put him on guard. He 
was the very man to be equal to any emer- 
gency, and it was fortunate for me that I 
could have him with me. I posted him to sit 
on the opposite side of the table if possible 
from me, and to watch any one passing be- 
hind me, and told him that I would do the 
same for him. Advised him to take his pis- 
tol along. 

"At the time appointed, we went ; found it 
to be a long, dark w^alk, and very lonely about 
the house. On our arrival the Doctor came 
to the door, and was much surprised at find- 
ing another person with me. I told him that 
I wanted to be with Baylor as much as pos- 
sible, and had taken the liberty to bring him 
along, and introduced him as one of the 
coolest and bravest men of our army. The 
Doctor said, 'I hardly knew you in that fine 
uniform, never having seen you wear it.' I 
said 'No, I bought it two years ago, but with 
the life I lead a decent dress is out of the 
question.' 'And what a beautiful pistol you 



152 HEROES AND SPIES OK THIJ CIVII, WAR. 

have here/ 'Yes, I received that as a pres- 
ent from a captured Federal officer, and as 
for Captain Baylor, he would take cold with- 
out his pistol, he carries it s'o constantly.' 

''He escorted us into another room, con- 
taining a full-spread table of such luxuries 
as I saw but seldom. There we met a long- 
haired, very dark-visaged man, who, though 
good looking, yet had a sinister expression 
that was very noticeable. As the Doctor in- 
troduced him he handed me his card, saying 
that as his name was unusual he would leave 
me his card. The name read 'C. Orizie Lugo 
de Anby, of New York.' After we were seat- 
ed and had eaten for a Httle while, another 
dark-looking foreigner entered, who did not 
take a seat at the table, but after being in- 
troduced he spoke a few words in ItaHan, and 
then left us. His name seemed to be Prus- 
sian ; neither of us could recall it. He was a 
very large and ugly-looking man, and while 
the Doctor said he was a grand man, he was 
not attractive to me, and in the absence of 
Baylor I should not have wished to be there. 

"The Doctor observed that my coming to 
Richmond must have been unexpected, as I 
had not told him of my coming when he left 
me in camp, and that a friend of his saw me 
at the War Department; so I disarmed his 
suspicion by saying that seven months pre- 



the: CI.OSING OF CONTRlj'S CARE^E^R. 1 53 

vious, after a competitive examination of of- 
ficers in my brigade, I had been recommend- 
ed for promotion, to be jumped over the 
heads of the ist and 2d heutenants in my 
company; that the paper had passed along 
to the War Department, and there seemed 
to have been lost. My old friend. Colonel 
John Blair Hoge, had found the paper, and 
I went to the Department in connection with 
this matter. This seemed to lull his suspi- 
cions as to my visit to Richmond. 

"I changed the subject, and suddenly asked 
the Doctor as to the best way to get gold 
through the lines, as he seemed never to 
have had any scarcity of that kind of cur- 
rency. He was evidently confused for a mo- 
ment, and said that the Italian Embassy had 
an arrangement by which he could get coin 
remittances. I then said, 'Doctor, where is 
that cave you frequented so much; was it 
near Port Republic ?' He was ill at ease under 
my questioning, and for the first time since 
we first met could not readily answer a ques- 
tion. He reddened up, and finally said that 
it was not near Port RepubHc, but on the 
western side of the Valley. The way he said 
it convinced us both that he had lied, and 
when we arose to go he did not gush over 
us, but he asked me if I could not ride out 
about five miles from the city the next night 



154 he:roe;s and spie:s of the civil waR. 

to see a friend of his ; that Miss Annie would 
be there, and he would have a carriage near- 
by about nine o'clock. I declined this invi- 
tation, as I thought I saw through his design. 

The next morning, as I stood waiting for 
the little wood-burning engine to back up to 
the train of two shabby looking cars, as the 
first step of my return, a young man came to 
me and said: 'President Davis sent me to 
say that you should come to his office exact- 
ly at II o'clock this morning. You saw me 
when you came with Colonel Boteler.' I re- 
turned to the hotel, left my small package, 
and at the time appointed presented myself 
and was at once admitted. The young man 
showed me in and retired. 

"Mr. Davis said : 'Captain, I have thought 
much of your story and of your suspicions 
of Doctor Contre. I want you to speak with 
perfect freedom and tell me what plan you 
suggest. Don't hesitate.' 

" 'Mr. President,' I said, 'my plan is to hme 
authority to bring a detail of ten men of my 
company to Richmond, and inside of forty- 
eight hours have in hand-cuffs the most ac- 
complished spy ever on the American conti- 
nent, with his whole outfit; with the convic- 
tion that if this is not done speedily some of 
us will wear handcuffs when he succeeds in 
betraying us all.' 



the: CI.OSING OP CONTRE^'S CAR^EjR. 1 55 

''Mr. Davis answered: 'Remember that 
you have no proof; that this man has not 
only the friendship of men in the cabinet, but 
credentials of his entire reliability from some 
of the best friends we have beyond the lines, 
and that he has even rendered valuable in- 
formation to our secret service. Suppose 
you were authorized to bring your detail here 
and secure some proof of youi^ suspicions. 
Could that be done ?' 

"I said, 'Mr. President, the time for watch- 
ing that man has gone by; he has been in 
successful communication with the Federal 
War Department three years, and he has suc- 
ceeded in getting his plans so well laid, his 
organized force to w^ork so actively and ef- 
fectually, that your call for me to go to Mr. 
Sedden's office, and your summons to me to 
come here, are known to him.' 

"The President continued silent so long 
that I felt not a little embarrassed, and said, 
'Do you wish me to go, sir?' He said, 'Not 
yet,' and was silent, and evidently troubled. 
He then said, 'you would not wish to come 
here and watch for proofs of this man.' I 
answered, 'I will obey your orders, of course, 
but it will only result in Contre leaving or 
killing himself, for he will never be arrested 
in any ordinary way. Mr. President, if my 



156 h^roe;s and spie:s of the civii, war. 

plan is not authorized, just order me to my 
command.' 

*'After another period of silence, he said: 
'The Cabinet meets at one o'clock, and if you 
receive no orders by seven o'clock to-mor- 
row morning, just return to your command. 
If your plan is authorized and you succeed, 
I will promote you to the rank of colonel.' 

"I thanked him, but said, 'I do not want 
promotion, I would rather break up that nest 
than to be made a general. Contre will 
never be arrested.' 

"The President had a dreamy look as I 
left, impressed with the conviction that trials 
were wearing him away, and that his old-time 
fire had faded under incessant care. Little 
did I think that the next time I saw him he 
would be wearing handcuffs in Fortress Mon- 
roe, and like his great General, Robert E. 
Lee, mourn in silence the Lost Cause. 

"I spent the day quietly at my hotel, but 
went out that night to the only eating-house 
in Richmond for a good supper, if Confeder- 
ate money would buy one. It was about ten 
o'clock; I was ushered into a small room, 
divided from the adjoining one by a partly- 
closed sliding door, and a curtain heavy 
enough to prevent any one from seeing from 
one side into the other. I had been there 
about half an hour, when a gentleman and 



THE CI.OSING 01^ CONTR^'S CAREJE^R. 1 57 

lady were ushered into the one next mine. 
I was eating quietly, and could not help hear- 
ing much that they said. I knew the man's 
voice as soon as I heard it. It was that of 
Contre. Among much that I heard was an 
inquiry as to how he could leave the Con- 
federacy, and whether he was certain they 
could get through the lines. His response 
was the important part. It was, 'we can go 
through to New York just when I choose; 
my work will be done here, and the Con- 
federate Government can have a lock of my 
hair to keep. The end is getting pretty 
close, and with you and a fortune, Italy will 
suit us,' Just then the waiter came in to see 
if I wanted anything, and until I left they 
only spoke in low whispers. 

"I slept none that night, knowing that Con- 
tre would succeed in his schemes up to the 
end of the Confederacy, which he was surely 
helping to bring about." 

During the latter part of March, 1864, the 
following item appeared in the Richmond In- 
quirer, which was not startling to Captain 
Marr, but to all the other living members 
of the little coterie who had known Contre so 
well in camp. It read as follows: 

"March 17th, 1864, License was issued to 
Lewis G, Contre, aged 26, Captain C. S. A., 
born Venice, Italy, residing in Shenandoah 



158 HE:R0ES and spies of THI: civil. WAR. 

County, Virginia, son of Eduardo and Elnora 
Contre; to marry Virginia M. Sanders, 
daughter of George M. and Annie J. Sanders, 
aged 23, born in Grafshill, Kentucky, resid- 
ing in Richmond. Marriage performed 
March 17, 1864, by J. M. McGill, Catholic 
Bishop of Richmond.'' 

Not many days after this, the Doctor and 
his accomphshed bride reached Lexington. 
They were called upon by General Rosser 
and many other officers ; Captain Marr being 
absent on a scout, did not see them. After 
their departure from Richmond, the com- 
mand awaited orders to the front. Contre 
made flying trips, as he sometimes did, to the 
neighborhoods of Woodstock and Port Re- 
pubhc, the nature of which no one knew or 
thought of inquiring about, as his wife was 
from the County of Shenandoah. None of 
those in the field or in the hospital ever knew 
why he traveled about so much between Rich- 
mond and the Valley. All of this deepened 
Marr's conviction that he was a smart rascal. 

There began to be in Richmond rather 
ominous inquiry as to what he was doing 
there. He was seen but little on the streets, 
and as gaiety in Richmond, by common con- 
sent, was deemed out of place, the times 
being so hard, very few parties or balls were 
given or attended by society people. The 



the: CI.OSING 01^ CONTRE S CAR^EiR. 1 59 

purchasing power of Confederate money was 
so small, the necessities of life in the market 
selling at prices beyond any heretofore 
known or heard of, the people all stinted 
themselves to the utmost degree, which fact 
made social gatherings impossible. Indeed, 
the author remembers hearing during the fall 
of '64 one of the most prominent lawyers in 
Virginia, whom he met in Richmond, a man 
who had been raised and lived in luxury all 
his life prior to the war, say that he had just 
passed by a show window, in which there 
were exposed for sale a few luscious looking 
apples; as they were marked $io apiece, of 
course he did not buy them, but he had 
whined for them like an old dog would for 
a bone. 

Another light was a little later on thrown 
upon the pathway of Dr. Contre, not only as 
to the then present, but, retrospectively, as 
to the few years just then passed. That 
light came from the following startling news 
from the Richmond Inquirer and other papers : 

Richmond Inquirer, April 19th, 1864. 

^'Arrest of an alleged spy; important papers 
found upon him/' 

"A dashing young fellow, calling himself 
Dr. lyUgo, who has recently cut quite a figure 
in fashionable and official circles in this city, 
was arrested on Saturday morning last, in 



f6o HE:R0I:S and spies Ol^ the: civil. WAR. 

Tappahannock, Essex County, while en route 
to the North, with lots of plans and draw- 
ings of bright particular spots in the Con- 
federacy, and doubtless a memory well stuff- 
ed with the latest 'semi-official' information 
relating to the movements of the Confederate 
troops. The arrest was made by detective 
John Reece, who, with others of the Con- 
federate Police Department, had for some 
time past been in close and anxious pursuit 
of him. He had successfully evaded the 
maneuvers and combinations of the whole de- 
partment, begun about three weeks ago, 
when suspicion first fell upon him, and the 
department very naturally felt pretty sore 
about it. On Friday night last, about ten 
o'clock, Detective Reece set out on horse- 
back for Essex County, fell in with a member 
of the Maryland Lyine, who volunteered for a 
^little scout,' and took him along to Tappa- 
hannock. Here they encountered on the fol- 
lowing morning the identical Dr. Lugo, on 
his way to the ferry, and although the officer 
had never seen him before in his life, he re- 
lied on his 'points,' and took him prisoner. 
Dr. Lugo attempted to get away, and played 
very indignant, but the cool assurance on the 
part of Reece and his friend that he would 
get shot certain if he did not submit, soon 
settled him, and he accompanied them back 



the: CI.OSING 01^ CONTRE'S CAR^E:r. i6i 

to Sandy's Hotel, the Exchange of Tappa- 
hannock. He was then taken to a private 
room, where he was quietly informed that 
it was 'the fate of war' that he should be 
stripped; and stripped he was, in spite of his 
protests and the most magnificent indigna- 
tion. In the midst of this display he alluded 
to his high and well-known character in the 
City of Richmond, acquaintance with the 
President, Secretary of War, Secretary of 
the Navy, and sundry other dignitaries he 
had visited while here. 

"In his pockets were found various papers, 
in which he is represented as a Prussian, 
though it seems he is an Italian ; a small card 
bearing the name of a Member of Congress, 
who had innocently vouched for him to get 
a passport in the days of his glory, also a 
card of a young Confederate captain, whose 
name is suppressed by request, but who is 
thought to be the head of the gang in whose 
society he had passed some time in Rich- 
mond, and at whose fashionable wedding 
some time ago he is said to have figured. 
Then there was a small bundle of papers, 
about six inches long and two and a half 
in breadth, containing drawings of different 
rivers, showing where certain torpedoes were 
placed ; a paper containing the names and de- 
scriptions of all the different batteries and 
11 



t' 



162 HEROES AND SPIES 0^ THE CIVII. WAR. 

points of Charleston Harbor, and then an 
elaborate draAving of some other work or 
works, the meaning of which he did not ex- 
plain, and the officers could not make out. 

"There was also a sheet of paper, with the 
heading in print, 'Wai' Department, Confeder- 
ate States of America/ At the bottom of the 
page was the signature, 'J^-^^^s A. Sedden, 
Secretary of War.' The intermediate space 
was blank; had evidently contained writing, 
but it was erased by some chemical process. 
Reece accused him of this, but he denied it, 
and said that he had only obtained the name 
to get a Hthograph of it. 'That is a poor 
excuse,' said Reece. 

''The paper he produced upon being ar- 
rested was a pass from the Secretary of the 
Navy, giving him permission to pass at will 
in all parts of the Confederacy. The officer 
found upon him also, a pass to cross the lines, 
one of the kind usually used for that purpose. 

"The search being over, and the Doctor's 
toilet rearranged, he was taken to King Wil- 
liam Court-House, where he was furnished 
with comfortable lodgings, and on Sunday 
was brought to Richmond. He is now in 
Castle Thunder, awaiting examination. Lugo 
is apparently about twenty-four years of age ; 
is slender, but well built, and of free and pre- 
possessing deportment," 



the: CI.OSING 0^ contrk's carieer. 163 

Richmond Inquirer, April 22d, 1864. 

''SPY ARRESTED. 

"Lynchburg, April 19th. — A Yankee spy, 
under the assumed name of SterHng King, 
who is believed to be the comrade of Dr. 
Lugo, who was arrested in Tappahannock, 
has been arrested at Marion, Va., and recog- 
nized by returning prisoners from Camp 
Douglas as a Yankee detective from Chicago. 
When arrested he represented himself as 
colonel of the 2d Virginia Cavalry." 

Richmond Dispatch, April 19th, 1864. 

''SPY ARRESTED. 

"On the night of the 31st of December, 
1863, a good-looking, dark-eyed, long-haired 
young man, of pleasing address, arrived at 
the Bahard House in this city, and registered 
himself as "C. Orizie Lugo de Anby, New 
York." Immediately on his arrival he ex- 
pressed great anxiety to see President Davis 
at once, and, being furnished with his address, 
went out of the hotel as if to visit him. He 
stayed at the hotel for several weeks, excit- 
ing no suspicion during his stay, making the 
acquaintance of several of the guests, and 
settling his bill on leaving. How he employ- 
ed himself while here is not fully known, but 



// 



1 64 he:roe:s and spies o^ the civii. war. 

it is said that he managed in some way to ac- 
quire the confidence of the Secretary of the 
Navy, and in consequence enjoyed many 
faciUties for making observations around the 
city and along the James River, to and be- 
low Drewry's Bluff. When he left the Ball- 
ard House it was with the avowed purpose 
of going to Wilmington. After his depart- 
ure nothing was heard of him until about the 
first of March, when the Hon. A. R. Boteler, 
with whom he had scraped an acquaintance 
at the Ballard House, received a telegram 
from him dated Wilmington, N. C, stating 
that he had been robbed of every cent he had 
in the world. In a few days after the date 
of this telegram he reappeared at the Ballard 
House, this time registering himself as 
'Roezle Lugo, M. D., Wilmington.' He 
stayed at the hotel until the 23d of March, 
and then disappeared without paying his bill, 
which amounted to $552. The detectives 
were put on the lookout for him, but could 
hear nothing of him, except that he had been 
last seen to go into a boarding-house on the 
corner of 8th and Marshall Streets. 

"Last Saturday morning, Detective John 
Reece, being in Tappahannock, Essex Coun- 
ty, recognized the absconding debtor of the 
Ballard House in the person of one of three 
men who were just in the act of crossing the 



the: closing 0^ contre's career. 165 

Rappahannock River on their way North. 
Reece stopped the party and spoke to Lugo 
as Doctor, and asked him for his passport. 
Lugo produced the passport of Mr. Mallory, 
Secretary of the Navy, but Reece telHng him 
that that would not answer, took him into 
custody. Lugo professed astonishment and 
indignation, and put on a great many airs, 
but all to no purpose. Reece took him to a 
room in the hotel in the place and searched 
him, and found on his person charts of 
Charleston Harbor, Wilmington and Rich- 
mond, and their defenses, and maps of all the 
rivers between the Rappahannock and Wil- 
mington in which we have torpedoes, with 
the exact locations of the torpedoes, their 
size, &c. Reece, appreciating that he had 
made an important capture, lost no time in 
bringing him to this city, where he arrived 
on Sunday evening. Lugo was committed 
to Castle Thunder to be examined as a spy. 

''We omitted to state that when he levant- 
ed from the Ballard House, he left behind 
him a valise, containing some old clothes and 
a galvanic battery." 

After it became certain that Doctor Con- 
tre had made his escape into the enemy's 
lines, and had taken with him all his wife's 
jewels, it became evident that he had been 
agent of the United States Secret Service, 



1 66 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

and the head devil of all the whole organ- 
ized system which, from the early days of the 
war up to near its close, had successfully 
frustrated the well-laid plans of the Confeder- 
ate Government and officers. 

Contre's first appearance in the Southern 
lines ; his killing Yankee soldiers at the battle 
of Fisher's Hill; his claim to have been im- 
prisoned by the Federals when left with our 
wounded men ; his claim to have escaped from 
Point Lookout ; to have been wounded in his 
flight to Virginia in crossing the Potomac; 
the large quantity of gold he always had ; his 
abihty to get letters through the lines; his 
frequent visits to a cave near Port RepubHc 
(since discovered), where it is thought he met 
his secret agents ; his intimacy with a certain 
family in Richmond, which was always re- 
garded with suspicion; his smart arrange- 
ment for keeping off duty by getting his ex- 
change prevented, which afforded him time 
and opportunity to run about at will; his 
frustration of our plan to abduct General Mil- 
roy at Winchester — all proved conclusively 
to Captain Marr that he had sheltered a con- 
summate villian, shared his bed and food with 
him, and by his friendship protected him from 
suspicion, and had been rewarded by an at- 
tempt on the part of Contre to effect his 
(Marr's) capture when he went to Charles 



the: CI.OSING OF CONTRE'S CAREER, 1 67 

Town in citizen's clothes for Gen. Wm. E. 
Jones. 

It was sad to realize that President Davis 
had been told all this, and more, and that 
Contre had planned so cunningly, and so com- 
pletely deceived the members of the Govern- 
ment that Mr. Davis feared to sanction his 
arrest, even after he had been convinced that 
he was a spy. 

There was a conviction in the mind of the 
people of Richmond who had personal knowl- 
edge of Contre and the beautiful Miss Vir- 
ginia Sanders who become his wife, and who 
was deserted by him, that with Contre in his 
flight went "the Miss Annie," who in some 
way evidently was dearer to him than was the 
beautiful but deserted wife. The double life 
seems thus to have been the usual course 
with this fully equipped and skilful villian. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE WILDERNESS — EIRST CONFLICT WITH GENERAL 
GRANT. 

As Rockbridge County had not suffered 
from the depredations of the enemy as much 
as some other portions of the country, and 
possessed such a generous and hospitable 
population, the command fared better for the 
little while it remained than it did usually. 
Many evenings were spent in Colonel Dul- 
any's tent to tell and Hsten to stories, study 
cavalry tactics, and listen to Lieut. Col. 
Marshall read appropriate selections from 
various authors. He w^as remarkably effec- 
tive in elocution. * These pleasant gather- 
ings, when broken up by the shock of armies 
were never to return, until the great day 
when wars will be no more. 

The days went by quickly, marked with a 
grand effort to bring the command up to the 
highest state of efficiency. On May ist the 
Laurel brigade was ordered to the front ; this 
meant to move to the neighborhood of Chan- 



the: wilderness. 169 

cellorsville. That country was so impoverish- 
ed that nothing but Hzards, whip-poor-wills, 
snakes and buzzards could live (it was natur- 
ally a poor country), and the armies had taken 
up what little substance there was, as a dry 
sponge could take up a drop of water. 

On the way over the Blue Ridge Moun- 
tains, and twice at other points, the com- 
manding general was ordered to move as fast 
as he could, as General Grant was about to 
move over to the south side of the river in 
force. General Lee wanted every man to 
be on hand for the first clash with General 
Grant, who had nearly two hundred thou- 
sand men, while General Lee could not mus- 
ter over fifty thousand men of all arms — 
of infantry, thirty-eight thousand; cavalry 
and artillery, say twelve thousand. 

The brigade commander found orders from 
General Stuart to take the plank road in front 
of Pickett's Division and delay the approach 
of Grant's cavalry as long as possible, in or- 
der to allow General Pickett's troops to come 
up and prevent the flanking of Ewell by the 
protrusion of General Grant's right. This 
sounded all right, but it meant hard fighting. 
Early in the morning the Seventh Cavalry of 
Virginia, led by General Rosser, moved down 
near the river and ascertained that General 
Grant was pouring his troops across at the 



lyO HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

United States Ford and over pontoons. 
I^earning that a cavalry scouting party had 
passed him going up a bhnd road parallel to 
the plank road, General Rosser sent a squad- 
ron over to hold that road against the return 
of their scouts, and by a circuit through the 
bushes came out lower down the plank road 
and fell upon the ammunition train of the 
Twelfth Corps of General Grant's army, cut 
loose mules, cut down wagons, upset ambu- 
lances, and soon had the road well obstructed. 

Captain Marr fired his pistol into one wag- 
on and set it on fire, and it soon blew up. 
He then tried it upon another, and much to 
his surprise a big infantryman, who had taken 
refuge there, jumped out, thinking he had 
been shot, and ran down the road bellowing 
that he was killed. 

Soon the head of a section of the Twelfth 
Federal Corps came up at double quick and 
made it too hot for General Rosser. This 
checked the onward march of General Grant 
on that road. They were ordered to halt; 
we fell back, and in an hour were attacked by 
the cavalry of the enemy. General Rosser 
was ordered to detain the enemy in his front 
as long as possible, and if driven back to re- 
treat as slowly as practicable, as General 
IvOngstreet was not on time, owing to the 
distance he had to march at short notice. 



the: wii^derness. 171 

Rosser could make a fighting front in the 
road as well and as often with a small force 
as the Federal commander could with his 
larger one; and to fight anywhere except in 
the road was impracticable, owing to the 
swampy character of the country. At it they 
went, hammer and tongs, and kept it up all 
day; not one foot could the Federals ad- 
vance, and whenever a flank movement could 
be threatened, General Rosser employed it, 
and thus toward evening drove in the Federal 
cavalry. The day was a bloody one, dead 
and dying men and horses obstructing the 
road in many places for two miles or more. 

About four o'clock in the evening, General 
Rosser ordered preparations for a determin- 
ed charge to close the day with a gain of 
ground. The first squadron of the Seventh 
Virginia was put in front, with Captain Marr 
in command, and Lieutenant Orlando Smith 
of Company A of the same regiment at his 
side. The charge was sounded, the first 
squadron went at it finely, well backed up by 
the other squadrons, properly spaced. The 
clash came in earnest, as with drawn sabres 
the Seventh rode into and then, over the 
mass of the enemy, who stood the charge 
unusually well; but that rush was too much 
for them. The Federals broke, and once 
getting started, went for over a mile pell- 



172 HI^ROES AND SPIELS OJ? THE; CIVIL WAR. 

mell, down that road, almost filling it with 
wounded, dead, and downed men and horses. 
Such a dust and smoke, too, completely ob- 
scured the little light that could penetrate 
that dismal wood at that time of day. Sud- 
denly the Federals parted, turned to the left 
by a new road they had constructed, moved 
to the rear of well but hastily constructed 
breastworks, and left the Confederates con- 
fronted by the Twelfth corps behind this wall 
of logs, rails and earth, ten feet high, and as 
against cavalry a pretty thorough obstruc- 
tion, from behind which the attacking party 
could be shot as they came to the front. It 
was a complete death-trap. Behind this bar- 
ricade there was as large a body of infantry 
as could be accommodated, while on the 
crest of a sharp hill in their rear six guns 
were trained upon the road approaching the 
barricade from the front. 

As soon as their cavalry had inclined to 
the left and filed past, the infantry, uncover- 
ing the head of our column, fired by platoon, 
right into the faces of the Confederates. So 
near and numerous was the infantry that the 
force of the flashes from their muskets was 
plainly felt by both men and horses. Re- 
treat for the Confederates was impossible, as 
in so long a headlong chase the road was 
literally jammed for two miles behind. It 



the: wiIvDerness. 173 

was perfectly straight for that distance. The 
capture of that position or the death of all 
hands was the only option left to us. In five 
minutes every Confederate would be flat in 
the dust. No one could escape. The first 
volley mowed down all the men who were 
in front. They fell fighting. Men were fall- 
ing so fast they could not come up as fast 
as they could be killed or wounded. Lieu- 
tenant Smith (a gallant man fighting there 
with an unexpired furlough in his pocket) 
was ordered to lead the men out through 
the new road, followed by the Federal cav- 
alry, and so flank the ambushing force. He 
attempted this, but before he could execute 
the order or find men to lead, both he and 
his horse were shot. His horse reared up at 
the side of Captain Marr, and was about to 
fall across the head of his horse, when Marr 
made a slight move out of the way, and then 
received upon the wrist of his left arm a bul- 
let, aimed at his heart, which tore through 
the arm, crushing through the bone, ripped 
its way across his breast, plowing the clothes 
in a rugged trail, and, under the right arm, 
that was then employed in firing the pistol, 
passed out, tearing that sleeve. 

Captain John Myers came up and executed 
the order to flank; and, strange to say, the 
Yankees broke without ever firing a shot 



174 HKROKS AND SPIKS 0^ THE CIVII. WAR. 

from their cannon, which would have cut 
lanes through the Confederates strung out 
along that road for two miles. Captain 
Marr's horse being shot, he and Ivieutenant 
Smith, dear friends in life, were carried as 
tenderly back to the rear as a corduroy road 
would allow, passing Pickett's Division on its 
way to the front. The Seventh lost that day 
in killed and wounded, prisoners and missing, 
over one-fourth of the men it carried into the 
battle, with the bloody Sixth and Twelfth yet 
to come. 

Captain Marr was supported by two slight- 
ly wounded men to Verdiersville, where the 
hospital had been established, clean and nice 
in the morning, but as bloody as any old 
slaughter house by night. All that night the 
wounded were being hauled in, and in order 
to make way for more, an ambulance train 
was started to take the wounded to Culpeper 
Court-House, over one of the worst roads 
in America. 

Captain Marr will now tell his own story. 
He says : 

"On the evening of the 6th, after heavy 
firing had been kept up without interval, or- 
ders came urging the removal to the rear 
of all wounded men who could be moved. 
This included me. I had been fighting for 
my arm in the hospital, by giving the sur- 



the: wilderness. 175 

geons to know that their decision to cut it 
off would be attended with the death of the 
first man w^ho tried it, or attempted to give 
me chloroform. 

''This obstacle in the way of carrying out 
their diagnosis proved sufficiently strong to 
induce them to put me in an ambulance, with 
a poor fellow from the Eleventh regiment, 
who was not w^orse wounded than I, but 
whose leg had been cut off according to or- 
der. During our awful ride over the rough 
road my companion bled so freely that he 
sunk, and was taken out dead at the next 
station, to be buried, and another put in his 
place with me in the ambulance. When we 
reached Culpeper Court-House he too was 
dead. All the time wounded men were con- 
verging there to be taken off by the poorly 
furnished railroad. Three thousand men, — 
some of the Gray and some of the Blue, — 
wounded in nearly all conceivable forms, 
were dumped out in the field and space 
around the big station. There we lay all that 
night, the air filled with suppressed groans 
and prayer. Every hour souls were passing 
into eternity from that group lying there on 
the bare ground, awaiting the coming of a 
train that could not carry off the wounded as 
fast as they accumulated from the battlefield, 
where two hundred thousand men were kill- 



176 HEROES AND SPIES OE THE CIVIL WAR. 

ing and crippling each other. And that is 
war, war that can only prove which is the 
stronger, and not which is right ! 

''A committee from Richmond, among 
whom were the Rev. Dr. Lansing Burroughs, 
Rev. M. D. Hoge, and other leading pastors 
of the city, had come down and established 
a kitchen, at which soup and coffee were 
made, and all night and all day they carried 
camp kettles of soup, coffee, and cool water 
for the wounded, weak, and fevered men. 
There was no difference shown between the 
Northern and Southern men when sick or 
wounded. Every once in a while they would 
say, 'he has gone, we can do nothing more 
for him.' With some they were asked to 
pray ; from others they were charged to bear 
last messages to surviving friends. 

''Surely if the angels of mercy looked 
down on those good men they saw the like- 
ness to themselves, as well as to him, of 
whom it is said, 'He wept with them that 
wept and mourned with them that mourned.' 

"The next day, about four P. M., I was 
put into a car packed with as many as it 
could hold, and the part of a train as heavy 
as the little engine fired with wood, could 
draw, and taken to Gordonsville, where I, 
with a few others, intended for the Staun- 
ton Hospital, were taken out and laid on 



THE wilde:rness. 177 

the platform until the next train came 
from Richmond on its way to Staunton, 
Late the next morning we were put on a 
train, and about five o'clock in the evening 
reached our destination, where the people 
had turned out to help the wounded in any 
way, and made so much over them, calling 
them fond names and urging kind attention 
upon them to such a degree as to almost 
make them feel that it was an honor to be 
wounded, or to die, if required to, for such 
people. I shall never forget a mug of wine 
that was handed me by an old friend from 
Charles Town, Mr. Newton Sadler. I had 
lost nearly all the blood I had in my body; 
was so weak that I could not move my limbs 
or hands, and that home-made weak wine just 
seemed to bring me to life. I was taken to 
the Hospital that had formerly been 
used as the Asylum for the Blind, as it is 
now, and found an old school-mate as sur- 
geon in charge. Dr. Thomas L. Opie, and a 
number of old companions-in-arms. All of 
us were too badly wounded to be out of bed, 
and therefore we could not see each other 
until we had been patched up. 

"I stayed only ten days at the Staunton 
Hospital, when an old friend from Lexington 
came and took me to his home, and was nurs- 
ing me into life again, attended by Dr. Hugh 
12 



178 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

McGuire, father of Dr. Hunter McGuire, 
when General Averill, the Federal cavalry 
leader, took it into his head to go to Lynch- 
burg via Lexington. This made it necessary 
for me to go elsewhere. I was mounted 
upon a rough, stumbling horse, and struck 
out for the Peaks of Otter, sure that the 
raiders would never go that w^ay; but they 
did, and after reaching the ridge I turned 
aside into the bushes to accept my fate, as I 
could go no further, my crushed arm nearly 
kilHng me. Pushing through the pines we 
came upon a little farm, only half a mile from 
the main road, where we stopped until we 
could safely leave its kindly shelter. I later 
returned to Lexington and was put on post 
duty there. 

"One of the most ludicrous things that I 
witnessed during the war occurred at the 
Presbyterian church at Harrisonburg, Va., 
during one of the many retreats made by the 
Confederates. One gloomy Sunday morn- 
ing, as our troops were marching through 
the town towards Staunton, I obtained per- 
mission to attend church. The Rev. D. C. 
Irwin was the pastor, and the place was 
pleasantly warm and well filled. After the 
opening hymn, the minister left the pulpit 
and passed back to the last seat, and there 
entered into a close, earnest talk with a large, 



TH^ WIIvDERNESS. 179 

bulky-looking, red-faced man, who seemed to 
be very unwilling to yield to Mr. Irwin's im- 
portunity; but at last he consented, rose up 
and slowly preceded Reverend Irwin to the 
desk. Then it was that the manner of his 
dress became evident. His face was very red 
and he looked hot, and his hair was quite 
bushy; he wore a blue shirt, too large for 
him, which was fastened in front by one large 
white horn button and one army brass but- 
ton. His pantaloons were as much too small 
as his blue shirt was too large. They were 
held up by white suspenders fastened over 
his shoulders, and as he wore no vest, coat, 
or gown, his suspenders were in full sight. 
I could but recall the great actor. Burton, in 
his role of 'the Biggest Boy in School/ as I 
looked, and nearly every one laughed at the 
appearance of the good and great Dr. Lan- 
sing Burroughs; not only one of the fore- 
most Baptists, but one of the ablest men of 
his day, measuring him in or out of the 
church. He said that he did not wonder that 
the people laughed at the figure he cut. 
Then he explained that his clothes were 
stolen during the stampede out of Winches- 
ter, and that he had to wear just what he 
could get, without regard to appearances. 

"His subject was the 'Sovereignty of God,' 
and people soon forgot all about his dress, 



l8o HKROES AND SPIE:S 01^ TH^ CIVII, WAR. 

and those in the rear portion of the church 
left their seats and crowded towards the 
front, with their mouths open, all leaning for- 
iivard as if fearing to lose a word of that ser- 
mon. It was grand, and at its close people 
crowded about Dr. Burroughs and offered 
not only the best, but all they had. 

"But it was w^hile lying out with thousands 
of other wounded men the night after the 
Battle of the Wilderness, that I saw this 
grand old man at his best, with Dr. Hoge, 
Dr. Minnegerode, and other like messengers 
of mercy as they went about ministering to 
our necessities. Our heroic ministers were 
not all filling with high Christian courage the 
position of chaplains of commands in the 
field, as were Dr. A. C. Hopkins, of the 
Stonewall Brigade; Dr. Tucker Lacy, Dr. 
Dabney, and Dr. Jones, the biographer of 
Stonewall; but many of them suffered for 
conscience sake, as for instance. Dr. G. D. 
Armstrong, of Norfolk, who bore alone the 
cruelties inflicted by Gen. B. F. Butler, whose 
cowardly nature exulted in persecuting the 
defenseless and keeping well out of reach ol 
armed men. 

"The story of Dr. Burroughs reminds me 
of one told on the Rev. James Baber, a very 
large man, who was a man of great learning 
and humble piety, but was both eccentric 



the: wii:.de:rness. i8i 

and absent-minded. On one occasion he 
attended the sale of household effects of a 
neighbor who lived three miles from him. 
At this sale he bought two five-gallon demi- 
johns, tied the handles of the two together 
with a large red handkerchief and threw them 
across his horse, then mounted between 
them. On his way home he called at the 
house of a lady parishioner, who saw him as 
he approached the house and was ready to 
greet him with, 'Well, Mr. Baber, you will 
scandalize the whole church; you, a minis- 
ter, to be stuck up on that horse between two 
five-gallon panniers.' As soon as she had 
paused, the meek and guileless old man said, 
'Madam, it is this way: My wife has some 
loose feathers at home in the attic and she 
asked me to get something to hold them in, 
and these will keep them so nicely.' Poor 
old man; he was the most learned man in 
the county, and yet bought bottles in which 
to store feathers !" 



CHAPTER XI. 

BEGINNING OF THi: e:ND. 

The peculiar style of dress and the negli- 
gee appearance of Gen. Wm. E. Jones gave 
rise to a good many funny things about him, 
yet no one doubted his coolness, bravery, or 
generalship. On one occasion, near his 
camp in Culpeper County, he had walked 
about a half a mile from his camp to a spring 
of nice clear water, and, as usual, in his shirt 
sleeves. On reaching the spring, which was 
on the edge of a pine copse, he lay down 
flat upon his face, with his mouth in the wa- 
ter, to take a good drink, with ease and com- 
fort. While in this position he saw mirrored 
in the clear surface not only his own face and 
form, but the reflection also of a Yankee sol- 
dier, with a drawn carbine, waiting to capture 
him when he was done drinking. Almost in- 
stantly he got up from his position, slipped 
out his pistol unseen, and with a sudden 
spring was standing with his cocked pistol 



BEGINNING 0^ The: EiND. l8^ 

covering the Yankee, who said, in a subdued 
tone, "you are my prisoner." "No," said 
the General, who was as strong and active as 
a panther, turning the carbine aside with 
his left arm as he pushed his pistol in the fel- 
low's face, "you are my prisoner," and he 
was. 

Captain Marr gave the following account 
of an incident that occurred near Culpeper 
Court-House: "The sound of a pistol shot 
was heard from the center of a group of men ; 
one of them was seen to fall, the blood spurt- 
ing in the air from a wound in his neck, 
which showed that the main artery had been 
torn. Two brigade surgeons came up imme- 
diately, examined the man and pronounced 
him dead. They went off, saying that they 
would order an ambulance to take him to 
camp. The instant they started off. Captain 
Magruder — who though a line officer, was a 
surgeon by profession — stepped quickly to 
the man, drew out a metal case of instruments, 
caught the ragged end of the artery and 
stuffed it with cotton. This he did quickly, 
as the blood had almost ceased to flow. He 
then called on men to rub and slap the hands, 
feet, and legs of the man. What liquor could 
be found was given either internally or rub- 
bed, and yet he was cold, with every indica- 
tion of death. So apparent had this become 



184 heroe:s and spies of the civil war. 

that the men who at first helped to rub him 
said, *it will do no good, it is better to let 
him alone.' I thought they were right, but 
Captain Magruder felt the man's heart, and 
then said, 'Men, if you will only help me, this 
man may live.' All fell to work now in earn- 
est to have a share in bringing a dead man 
to life. Magruder said, 'work hard and 
watch!' Sure enough a slight twitching 
about the eyes and mouth was soon noticed. 
This became more and more pronounced; 
then it grew into decided contractions, or 
contortions, of the body and arms, and pres- 
ently he began to struggle, until he had to 
be held by strong men. Magruder gave him 
some remedies, bandaged his neck, and had 
him put into the ambulance, ' sent first to 
camp and then to the hospital. I did not see 
him again for quite a while, until one day, 
some two months later, I noticed a man with 
his head very much on one side coming 
towards the camp, and when he reached it 
I saw that it was Jake Turner, alive and well, 
but with his head canted very much to one 
side. Though feeble, yet he had come back 
to camp with a heart full of gratitude. He 
said he knew that he was now not fit to do 
duty as a soldier ; that his country did not ex- 
pect further service of him, but that he desir- 
ed to stay with the old command in order to 



BEJGINNING 01^ THE END. 1 85 

devote himself to Captain Magruder and to 
die for him if he got a chance. He served 
him in every possible way, but the service 
was a short one, for not long after this his 
benefactor was killed at the battle of Jack's 
Shop. Poor Jake Turner was almost broken 
hearted at the death of his benefactor; he 
stayed by the body while it was above 
ground, helped to bury it, took a lock of his 
hair, and went home a sincere mourner if 
ever there was one." 

The retreat of the Confederate army 
through Hagerstown, Md., served to ex- 
hibit the great difference in the number and 
conduct of our friends in times of prosperity 
and adversity. When our troops entered 
Hagerstown, as we marched toward the bat- 
tlefield of Gettysburg, the people greeted us 
gladty, sang "My Maryland" and "Dixie;" 
brought out pies and lots of other good 
things. They couldn't do enough for the 
Confed. We went, we saw, and were beaten, 
and on the retreat, before we reached the 
limits of Hagerstown, I was put with a 
squadron to cover the retreat, to bring off 
stragglers, force men along, and keep the 
advance of the Federals back as much as pos- 
sible. As we entered the town, retiring 
slowly, and disputing each foot of ground, 1 
hoped that we should be somewhat sheltered 



1 86 HEROES AND SPIES O^ THE CIVlI. WAR. 

by the buildings from flankers, and have some 
comfort from those who had so gladly re- 
ceived us of late on our forward march. But 
never was a man more wofully disappointed, 
for not a smile did I see except of derision, 
nor a word that was not a taunt or threat. 
We had hardly entered the better part of the 
town before we were fired upon from win- 
dows, housetops, and board fences, and from 
all directions, with all kinds of shot, and even 
stones were hurled at us from roofs. I never 
since have heard the name of the place with- 
out remembering our farewell salute from 
the people, though I charitably hoped that 
some of our salutations were bestowed by 
soldiers concealed there in the houses. 

Captain Marr says that while in Lexing- 
ton on post service he had time to notice the 
increasing evidences of exhaustion manifest- 
ing, as they did, the nearer approach of the 
end. The little groups of homeless refugees, 
wounded soldiers, and citizens of the town 
would meet and talk over the changes in the 
situation which went on from day to day, 
often trying to comfort each other with the 
assurance that as their cause was just and in 
the hands of such good men it would scarcely 
be permitted to fail. The people there had 
seen or felt but little of war by personal ex- 
perience with the Bluecoats among them 



BEGINNING Olf the; END. 1 87 

long or often. Only once did they reach or 
enter the town, and that was on a raid made 
by General Averill, with his magnificently ap- 
pointed division of cavalry, with which he 
passed through the town over the Peaks of 
Otter to Lynchburg, where he was ignomin- 
iously defeated by Gen. Jubal Early. On 
this invasion he carried out the inhuman war- 
fare of the torch. One of the meanest things 
that I think was done during the whole war 
on either side was at the time of this raid. 
Old Dr. WilHam S. White, who was the pas- 
tor of the church of which General Jackson 
was a deacon, was a large man, and being a 
great cripple could not walk without 
crutches. He could walk only a few steps 
with their help. His church was about eight 
blocks from his dwelling. He had to ride to 
and fro from his church and home. He had 
a sober, staid horse, so well trained that he 
had come to know just what was expected of 
him, so that he had to be let alone only, and 
as soon as he found out where the Doctor 
wished to go he would take him there and 
back safely. 

On Sunday morning, after he had been 
saddled and bridled by the servant, he would 
leave the stable, go around to the front door, 
sidle up to the steps from which the Doctor 
was in the habit of mounting, then keep per- 



1 88 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

fectly quiet until his master was seated in 
the saddle and had arranged his crutches, and 
only at the signal always used would he move 
on to the church. On arriving there he would 
place himself near the side entrance, remain 
perfectly still until the Doctor had dis- 
mounted and entered the church, w^hen he 
would pass around to the rear and enter the 
shed placed there for his comfort. There he 
would remain until the organ struck up the 
last hymn. He would then sidle up to the 
little platform at which he had left the Doc- 
tor, wait until he was comfortably seated in 
the saddle and then take him home. 

When Generals Hunter and Averill re- 
treated through Lexington they took this 
old preacher's horse. The citizens were very 
indignant; begged that this horse might be 
left; offered to pay any amount at which 
they chose to value him if they would only 
spare him to this infirm and helpless old min- 
ister. 

By order of the Federal general the mili- 
tary institute at this place was burned, for 
which there was probably some justification, 
as the cadet corps from this school had in 
the battle of New Market routed thrice their 
number of Federal soldiers. 

On post duty soldiers, during these times, 
fared very little, if any, better than when at 



BEGINNING OF the: e;nd. 189 

the front. Requisitions could be made for 
a great variety of things, the value of which 
was reckoned up by the commissary and all 
paid in rice. That is, enough of this ''swamp 
seed," as it is called by sailors, was doled out 
to sustain life at a pretty low ebb. A citizen 
in market fared but little better, as he would 
use his basket to carry the money and bring 
the supplies home in his hand; a jag of about 
one third of a cord of green, wet wood sold 
for five hundred dollars, while butter sold 
at ten cents in gold, or thirty-five dollars a 
pound in new issue. 

Captain Marr says that while quartered at 
the house of his old friend S. J. Campbell, of 
Lexington, and while experiencing the de- 
lightful sensation of restoration to life and 
strength, after having been on the border 
land that so narrowly divides life from death, 
he had seen the Divine work of Nature as 
she built up the wasted members and rein- 
forced the slow and feeble currents of life by 
her gently invigorating influences collected 
from all the elements of her domain. There 
he was accustomed to meet a little bevy of 
congenial spirits daily as they discussed the 
issues of the day. Among these men were 
Doctor McGuire, Judge Brockenborrough, 
Rev. Wm. Northern, of the Episcopal 
Church, and old Dr. Wm. S. White. These 



igo h^roe;s and spies of the; civii. war. 

would help the wounded soldier during the 
tedium of restoration. He says that some 
of the sweetest visits ever made him at this 
time were those of Mrs. Margaret J. Preston, 
the poetess of Virginia. 

Of many literary women it can be truth- 
fully said, ''she is all genius, she is an unnat- 
ural woman, or she is a failure in all but lit- 
erature ;" none of these could be said of Mrs. 
Preston. As wife, mother, friend, neighbor, 
and indeed in every possible relation of life, 
she filled that relationship with a natural ease 
and a gentle grace which proved that, in her 
case, the genius of the poetess had not 
spoiled the sweetness and grace of a well- 
rounded womanhood, or dim.med the lustre 
of a symmetrical Christian character. When 
all women attain to her standard and all men 
become worthy of the women, then the world 
will be called to glory. Mrs. Preston pre- 
sented the wife of Captain Marr with one 
of the proof copies of her beautiful poem 
"Beechenbrook," saying that her husband 
and her hero were alike in their war expe- 
riences. The edition of this work was de- 
stroyed by the burning of Richmond. 

While convalescing at the home of this 
Lexington friend. Captain Marr says that he 
could see plainty from his window the grave 
of Stonewall Jackson, and the small Confed- 



BEGINNING O? the: KND. T9I 

erate flag which floated over it, which was 
furnished by a citizen of England, at whose 
request it was kept floating and for which 
purpose he furnished the flag. 

On the last march, as General Jubal Early 
passed through Lexington from Lynchburg, 
it was ordered that the Stonewall Brigade 
should march through the cemetery and pass 
the grave, then countermarch and file out to 
the main street. What a sad sight, and yet 
sadder story, did that visit of the old brigade 
suggest to Captain Marr, who remembered 
as though it were only yesterday that this 
famous com-mand had taken into battle at 
First Manassas thirty-three hundred bright 
muskets, and that now the old Commander's 
grave was being seen for the last time by the 
sad remnant of that once grand brigade re- 
duced, as it was, to two hundred and forty- 
nine worn out, ragged, and often half-starved 
men. That old command had made not only 
a name that will never die, but a history that 
will be taken as the standard of military prow- 
ess by many yet unborn generations. 

Over the mountains and valleys of Virgin- 
ia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, 
and the District of Columbia they had march- 
ed and fought, leaving a trail with their 
bloody graves. With pride, mingled and hal- 
lowed to sadness, he saw once more the few 



192 HEJROKS AND SPIi^S OF THE; CIVII. WAR. 

that remained of a command to whose first 
roll call he had answered, and which had been 
baptized in blood by General Bee just before 
his death on the baptismal battlefield, be- 
stowing upon it and its immortal leader a 
name that will go ringing down the ages as 
a synonym of military glory and consecration 
to the right. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SOMK REMINISCENCES. 

When the call came in April, 1861, for the 
men of Virginia to report at Harper's Ferry 
to join the army gathering there, the volun- 
teer company known as "The Botts Greys," 
of Charles Town, in the Valley of Virginia, 
was among the first to report. The company, 
like many others, was composed of men who 
were all well-to-do, and many of them 
wealthy. They naturally thought to take 
into army life as many comforts as possible. 
Two wagons were built adapted to carry the 
belongings of the members, in addition to 
such transportation as the Quartermaster 
might furnish. They were up-to-date, and 
contained arrangements for each mess to 
have its own chest, cots, utensils and a trunk 
for each man. Quite a number of servants 
to black boots, attend to the washing and 
cooking, were taken along. We were all 
proud of our equipment, and expected to do 

13 



194 hi:roe:s and spies of the; civii. war. 

"genteel fighting" only. We were organized 
as Company G of the 2d Virginia Infantry, 
and 1st Brigade, of which Major Thomas J. 
Jackson was made brigadier general. He 
took his brigade to Falling Waters on the 
Potomac River, directly opposite, and as 
near General Patterson, with his Federal 
army as possible. Then he drilled us inces- 
santly, as if he was trying to see how many 
of us he could kill before we ever got sight 
of the enemy ! After some weeks of this pre- 
paratory employment, General Patterson 
concluded to send over a portion of his force 
— about five times as many as we had — and 
see w^hat we were about. We were drawn 
up in line of battle, and hoped that we were 
at last to have a chance at the Yankees, no 
matter how many there might be; but 
greatly to our chagrin. General Jackson kept 
moving us back from one position to another 
until our wagons were unprotected, and the 
Yankees got them all. Oh, how mad we 
were, when we heard them cheering in ex- 
ultation over their capture! Many curses 
loud and deep we uttered at the failure of 
our general to have our belongings put out 
^f harrn^ way. Our county people were very 
indignatit and denounced General Jackson. 
The County Court of Jefferson County con- 
vened, appropriated several thousands of dol- 



some: re;minisce:nc^s. 195 

lars, and called together the women to make 
tents for us. This was done in great haste, 
and soon we were well supplied with them, 
and also began the accumulation of such 
other things as we thought we needed. After 
we got our tents all up, and a nice encamp- 
ment established, General Jackson marched 
us all one night about twenty miles in the di- 
rection of Winchester. Our tents, we learn- 
ed, were stored somewhere, but where we 
never found out; but one thing we did find 
out, that is, that General Jackson considered 
a gum cloth, a blanket, a tooth-brush and 
forty rounds of cartridges as the full equip- 
ment for a gentleman soldier. 

The strangest thing, though, I ever knew 
General Jackson to do, was while we of his 
brigade were encamped at Centreville, Va. 
He had upon his staff Thomas Marshall and 
Lieut. Frank P. Jones, two men who seemed 
to be eminently suited to the General, as they 
both were men under middle age, both Chris- 
tians, and seemingly attentive to every or- 
der. One day, entirely unexpectedly, each 
of these men was handed a letter in General 
Jackson's handwriting in which he was re- 
quested to write to the person named therein 
asking the recipient to accept the position 
upon the General's staff then held by him- 
self. Of course these letters were written 



196 HE:R0ES and SPIE:S of the civil, WAR. 

and handed to the General, accompanied by 
the resignations of the writers ; both of which 
the General accepted promptly, without of- 
fering a single word of explanation. 

When his brigade was drawn up in line of 
battle at Manassas, and the enemy were find- 
ing our range pretty accurately and sending 
quite a variety of shot our way, I noticed the 
approach of three men on horseback directly 
in the rear of our line, one of whom called to 
us to open space for them to pass through to- 
wards the enemy. This was done, and they 
rode along our front, fully exposed for half 
a mile, in order to get a good observation of 
the enemy's position. President Davis and 
Generals Jackson and Beauregard were the 
three men. It was surprising that none of 
the three were seriously hurt, though Gen- 
eral Jackson was shot in the hand at the time. 

During the battle of Cedar Mountain, Gen. 
Wm. E. Jones sent me to ask permission for 
him to make a flank movement to the rear 
of the enemy's right flank. When I found 
General Jackson he was entirely alone, sit- 
ting on the ground at the root of, and leaning 
against a small tree. He was holding his 
horse by the bridle ; had his eyes shut, while 
his lips moved. He did not notice me for 
some time; while the battle raged Jackson 
prayed ! 



some: reminiscences. 197 

Stonewall Jackson was a great believer in 
celerity of movement, and held that it was 
possible for the South to off-set the great 
disparity of numbers which the North with 
the open market of the world to draw 
upon, both for men and material, had over 
her, by having a few small baggageless 
armies that could cover twice the distance 
in a day required by heavy divisions. 

I had it from Col. A. R. Boteler, a member 
of his staff, that at five different times Gen- 
eral Jackson forwarded by him this propo- 
sition, without change, and that the first time 
was while he was only a brigade commander : 
''Give me forty thousand men; I will take 
Harrisburg, Pa., and end the war." Colonel 
Boteler says that the first three times the 
proposition was rather sneered at, and that 
the last two times it was considered, with the 
conclusion that the men could not be raised. 

No one else has yet seen, as he evidently 
did, the strategical value of Harrisburg. The 
author believes that with that force in his 
hands at any time during the first two years 
of that war, he would have compelled the 
keeping of a quarter of a million of men to 
guard Washington, Baltimore, Harrisburg, 
Philadelphia, and the railroads constituting 
their line of communication and supplies. 
The war would have been made so unpopular 



198 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVII. WAR. 

in Maryland and Pennsylvania, that it would 
have been impossible for Federal armies 
to have marched South, while the Southern 
armies would have used pack trains for trans- 
porting ammunition, and light horse ar- 
tillery, with no wagons; and subsisted on 
Northern soil entirely. This was Jackson's 
plan, and its adoption would have made a 
far different history; while the wholesale 
devastation of the South would never have 
been accomplished. His would have been 
an aggressive warfare from start to finish. 
All the victories he did achieve were won by 
rapid marches and unlooked-for attacks. 

The victory of First Manassas should have 
belonged to General McDowell, as he had 
out-generaled Beauregard, and had the bulk 
of the Federal army at Stone Bridge, nearer 
the Junction by two miles, than was the po- 
sition held by the Southern general, who ex- 
pected McDowell to attack just where he had 
the Frida}^ before, when the battle of Bull 
Run, as Southerners call it, was fought. 
That error of General Beauregard's caused 
the cutting up of the brigades of Generals 
Bee and Bartow before the brigade of Gen- 
eral Jackson could get there, having to dou- 
ble-quick, as he did, nearly five miles, and 
then endure the fire of the most and best of 
McDowell's army for nearly four hours. This 



some: RilMlNISCENCES. 1^9 

position Jackson held until nearly four 
o'clock, when three of his regiments charged 
out in front, breaking the center of General 
McDowell's Hne. Just at this time, too, an 
unexpected thing occurred, which settled 
the day. 

General Kirby Smith, with about fifteen 
hundred men, mostly Marylanders, was hav- 
ing his command conveyed by railroad to the 
junction, which was General Beauregard's 
base. Hearing the roar of our battle, and 
knowing that if he went on toward the junc- 
tion he would get farther away from the field 
of contest, he stopped the train at the nearest 
point, and guided by the sound, attempted 
to join us, but, fortunately for us, came out 
of the woods upon the flank of McDowell's 
army, pretty well to their rear. They seeing 
this, thought it a trap, threw down their mus- 
kets, cut loose the horses from their guns 
and converted their whole army into a fleeing 
mob. From the crest of a high hill I could 
see a vast multitude all flying for dear life, 
scattered for three miles in width, and as far 
as the eye could see looking North. 

One of the most prominent lawyers in Vir- 
ginia was the Hon. T. C. Green, member of 
the Confederate Congress representing the 
lower district of the Valley of Virginia. He 
was a private in the 2d Virginia Regiment of 



200 HEROES AND SPIES 01? THE CIVIL WAR. 

Infantry ; was exceedingly bitter, and longed 
for a chance to meet the Federals. While 
he attended to his duties in Congress faith- 
fully, he always turned up in camp just before 
a battle. He was always a very absent- 
minded man; had often been known to in- 
vite company to dine with him and then to 
go off and dine elsewhere. At the First Bat- 
tle of Manassas he said that he wanted to kill 
a Federal for each cartridge he had; that is, 
if he was not killed himself. After the battle 
was over he boasted and rejoiced that he had 
killed quite a number before his musket got 
something the matter with it, so that the 
cartridges would not go down into the bar- 
rel, and said that but for that misfortune he 
would have killed as many more. He fully 
believed this, and asked a fellow soldier to 
see what the matter was with his gun. He 
did so, and found, greatly to the mortifica- 
tion of Green, that his gun had not been dis- 
charged at all, but that all the cartridges were 
fast in the barrel, though he had fought hard 
all morning. The boys never let him forget 
that joke, although he went through many 
other battles and did execution in all of 
them. 

The following incident was related by Cap- 
tain Marr, as having occurred down on the 
Rappahannock River. 



SOMi; REMINISCENCES. 20I 

"It had been storming all day, the wind 
blowing at a furious rate; the night came 
down dark and cold, with a cutting wind that 
drove the stinging rain into the flesh like 
particles of ice or steel. Our brigade was 
back of the Minor Botts house, while our 
pickets were not half a mile from those of 
the enemy — both hues being south of the 
Rappahannock River. On this dark night 
we could all feel the difficulty of maintaining 
our lines, as it was absolutely so dark that we 
could see nothing; nor was it possible to 
keep any definite idea of the points of the 
compass or the direction of the camp. I 
went to the colonel and told him that picket- 
ing afforded no protection, but that in such 
a night it only exposed the men. He thought 
as I did, but felt that whatever the conse- 
quences might be he would not relax any 
measure of discipline; so I took the men out 
to what I supposed would be their posts, or 
the right location for each of them, and left 
them. And in order to keep, if possible, a 
correct idea of their whereabouts, I deter- 
mined to spend a whole night, or while the 
storm lasted, in an effort to keep them in 
place. 

"The storm grew blacker and the wind 
blew more violently than ever, and made the 
most mournful sound I had ever heard, 
while the darkness became so dense that I 



202 HER0E:S and spiels OI? tut CIVIIy WAR. 

could not see my horse's head. No rehef 
could be had. The way we had come it 
was impossible to find. I realized that each 
man was 'in for it' just where he was, but 
made an effort to find some one man of the 
line under my charge. I made up my mind 
where I thought was the proper direction to 
find the first man and started in that direc- 
tion. I had no means of knowing how far I 
had traveled until I butted up against a horse- 
man and horse, so as to nearly knock him and 
myself over. Then I shouted to him to know 
who he was, in an effort to be heard above 
that terrible storm. His response was that he 
was a Federal picket, and was almost dead 
with cold. No man could handle either gun or 
pistol in such a storm. The poor fellow said 
if he could only find either camp he would 
go to it. I made him understand who I was, 
and that I could not find my own men. He 
beeged that I would not leave him ; and in- 
deed I felt pretty much as he did, the need of 
companionship so greatly, in the teeth of that 
darkness and hurricane, that the fact that we 
were enemies was lost sight of. There we 
waited just for the comfort we had in touch- 
ing each other, and because, Hke two men on 
a cake of ice at sea, there was no place to go. 
There we stayed until three more miserable 
hours had passed ; the wind had shifted from 
the north; the moon came struggling up. 



SOMi: RDMINISCE^NCES. 203 

Then we began to find out where we were. I 
had spent about four as uncomfortable hours 
as ever fell to the lot of a soldier on the ene- 
my's picket line. 

"We parted as good friends, without the 
slightest idea in the mind of either of cap- 
turing the other. Common suffering out in 
that terrible night had cemented a friendship 
that Hfted us both for the time above the 
level of enmity. 

''Indeed, it made me glad to know that 
picket firing had been discontinued for some 
time, for I would not like to know that men 
so inclined to be kind to each other should 
be expected to shoot each other down, not 
in the heat of battle, but in cold blood, and 
yet I know that in such a war as we were 
waging, where men of the same blood, speak- 
ing the same language and having the same 
history or antecedents, were opposed, that 
unless they were induced to fire upon each 
other with occasional fatal results they would 
soon become so friendly that all the plans 
and movements of each side would be made 
known to the other. In other words, that the 
rigor and asperity of war has its uses. 

When Lieut. Col. Thomas Marshall's death 
was known, the whole Army of the Valley 
felt that another good man had fallen. His 
death cast a gloom over all who knew him or 
had heard of him. He was a grand, Chris- 



204 HEROES AND SPIES 0^ THE CIVII. WAR. 

tian cavalier. I^ike the great Stonewall 
Jackson, he showed to great disadvantage 
when on horseback, while like Jackson, his 
great Christian heroism and devotion to God 
and his country went hand in hand. This ac- 
count of him was given by one who esteemed 
his friendship and companionship as among 
the greatest privileges of his life: 

''I have seen Col. Thomas Marshall look- 
ing more like a tradesman on horseback for 
the first time in his Hfe than like a bold 
Southern rider. In the morning when he had 
been too hurried to get through his person- 
al devotional exercises before it was time to 
mount, I have seen him get down by the 
roadside, near a stump or log, and finish his 
morning prayer in the presence of the whole 
brigade the first time we stopped long 
enough. The first time I ever saw this, he 
must have heard the sneers and profane jests 
caused by the sight. He had just been as- 
signed to our regiment then, and our men did 
not know him. A few days afterwards he went 
into a fight; Col. Marshall led the charge, 
and penetrated into the enemy's ranks far- 
ther than any one else, and while he was a 
poor swordsman, he stayed among them. 
They had unhorsed him and beaten him over 
the head and shoulders with their sabres, un- 
til they were forced to retreat under pressure 
from our men. 



SOM^ REJMINISCENCES. 205 

"From that time when Marshall knelt down 
to pray no one spoke or made a noise while 
he was at his devotions, and I have seen a 
score of Godless men remove their hats and 
keep silence until his prayers were ended. 

"He had a strange presentiment, or pre- 
monition, of his death, which occurred in a 
battle in which his command was engaged 
in the Valley. He had always said that he 
hoped — and I expect prayed — that he might 
not be shot in the back. 

"Up to the day on which he was killed, he 
had not made his will or given any special 
instructions to his servant about his body or 
effects, but on the morning of that sad day 
he did both ; telHng the servant which road to 
pursue in taking his horses home and in send- 
ing messages. He was killed on the retreat 
of his command, and twice turned about and 
faced the approaching line of the enemy. 
Again he was urged to retreat and again 
turned his back to his foes, and in that mo- 
ment fell mortally wounded, was brought off 
and soon died. His was one of the brightest 
Christian characters that adorned the ranks 
of the Southern army, in which was found 
many men, who like Lee and Jackson exhib- 
ited in their lives under the most trying con- 
ditions the beauty and the glory of the gos- 
pel of Christ.'' 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CAVALRY VS. INFANTRY — STONi:WAI,I, JACKSON. 

There was always a sort of jealousy of 
the cavalry felt, and on every opportunity 
expressed, by the infantry, which grew 
out of the fact that the cavalrymen were 
better clothed and fed than they. Of course 
this was true, for the rider could take 
better care of his clothes, and as he was most 
of the time away from the bulk of the army, 
he could forage better; yet he was nearer 
the lines of the enemy, and consequently 
oftener in collision. Indeed, the writer has 
seen and taken part in thirty hard battles in 
as many consecutive days. If measured by 
the quaUty of courage, the cavalryman of the 
army of Northern Virginia was in no degree 
inferior to the best infantry the world ever 
saw. 

To know General Lee's estimate of cav- 
alry, see report to Secretary of War. The 
Richmond Dispatch of May 7th says, in an ex- 



CAVAi^RY VS. in:^antry. 207 

tract from General Lee's Report to the Sec- 
retary of War, dated May 5th, 1864, at 
Headquarters Army Northern Virginia: 

"The enemy crossed the Rapidan at Ely's 
and Germania Ford. Two corps of this army 
moved to oppose him ; Ewell by the old turn- 
pike, and Hill by the plank road. They ar- 
rived this morning in close proximity to the 
enemy's line of march. A strong attack was 
made upon Ewell, who repulsed it, capturing 
many prisoners and a few pieces of artillery. 
The enemy subsequently concerted upon 
General Hill, who, with Heth and Wilcox's 
Divisions, successfully resisted repeated and 
desperate assaiilts. A large force of Cav- 
alry and Artillery on our right was driven 
back by Rosser's Brigade. By the blessing 
of God we maintained position against every 
effort until night, when the contest closed. 
I have to mourn the loss of many brave offi- 
cers and men. The gallant Brigadier Gen- 
eral J. M. Jones was killed, and Brigadier 
General Stafford I fear mortally wounded 
while leading his command with conspicuous 
valor. 

"Signed 

"R. E. LEE, General 

To a very large extent Stuart's cavalry 
fought with rifles as infantry, and were often 



208 H^ROKS AND SPI^S O^ THE; CIVII, WAR. 

pitted against an equal or even superior in- 
fantry force of the enemy. I give one rea- 
son for my belief that it requires a brave 
man to make a good cavalry soldier, when 
one not so brave may make a good infantry 
man. I say this after having done service 
in both branches — in the Stonewall Brigade 
until after the First Manassas (where Jack- 
son was crowned ''Stonewall"), and the rest 
of the time until near the close of the war in 
the Laurel Brigade of cavalry. Therefore I 
cannot be accused of having a bias either way. 
A man in the cavalry can sometimes avoid 
danger or shirk a fight, while in infantry a 
man is more of a machine and has to go with 
the line. Cavalry that fight must be impelled 
by pride, patriotism, or personal courage. A 
good infantry soldier may not possess any one 
of these qualities to any great degree. Only 
one other test that is just can be employed 
to settle and refute the absurd statement 
that the cavalry did not fight like the in- 
fantry, that is to measure the service ren- 
dered and the duty done by the casualties. 
I have applied this test to quite a number of 
organizations of the two different arms which 
carried about the same number of men into 
the war, and compared the number left at 
the close, and every such comparison serves 
to show that neither has any good grounds 



CAVAI^Y VS. INFANTRY. 209 

founded upon facts to conclude that that arm 
in which he belonged held any superiority 
over the other. It is true that a charge by a 
well-disciplined Hne of infantry is a grand 
sight, and that results are decisive and soon 
follow the shock of such a clash. Infantry 
are fought as a mass, while with cavalry there 
is more individuality. Neither should ever 
try to disparage or belittle the value of the 
other; for it may be said of nearly all Con- 
federate soldiers, ''They were true to the last 
of their blood and their breath, and would, 
like reapers, descend to the harvest of death." 
But rather let all Confederates remember 
that they both, yea all, had in every battle 
to fight odds so very great that the other par- 
ty often found it necessary to falsify the truth 
in giving a statement of the numbers pres- 
ent on each side in every battle. As for in- 
stance, Gettysburg, where General Lee had 
less than sixty thousand of all arms, while the 
Federals numbered over one hundred thou- 
sand. Hence it required the straining of the 
last nerve and the greatest effort of every 
man to gain a victory, and then the Confed- 
erates were so exhausted that they could 
not gather the results nor make the strategic 
movements rendered expedient or possible 
by a battle. 

14 



r 



2IO HDROKS AND SPIES OF THE; CIVIIv WAR. 

With anything like an equal army in num- 
bers, I^ee and Jackson would have made a 
history very far different from that taught in 
some of the schools of to-day. 

Early during the war General Jackson de- 
clared that he did not intend to waste his men 
against the breastworks of the enemy. To 
this he adhered, for only once during his life 
did he march up to the enemy in front and 
give him battle. That was at Kernstown. 
That battle was delivered under the positive 
order from General Lee to attack at the ear- 
liest possible moment in order to prevent the 
troops at Winchester from being sent to 
reinforce the Federal army in eastern Vir- 
ginia. On every other occasion he flanked 
around and turned up on the wrong side of 
the enemy's fortifications, and that usually 
"settled the hash" of the other fellow. In 
order to the more effectually flank the enemy 
he would fall back so as to swing around 
unseen. That fact or custom inspired a mes- 
sage intercepted by General Stuart and a 
small portion of his Cavalry, who went around 
on a raid behind General Pope's army, cut the 
wires and took a message sent by General 
Halleck to General Pope. From the message 
taken by the Confederates it appeared that 
General Pope had wired Halleck (then Sec- 
retary of War) : "I have Jackson in full re- 



CAVAI^RY vs. INI^ANTRY. 211 

treat." The answer captured read thus (Hal- 
leck to General Pope) : ''General, beware of 
Jackson's retreats; they are more to be 
feared than his advances." General Pope did 
not get that warning, but he was so self-con- 
ceited that he would not have regarded it 
if he had. The fact is, that Jackson was just 
then sweeping around to come up in his rear 
at the "Junction," as Manassas was called; 
right in the rear of poor vain Pope, who was 
never fit to command an army. 

The next day, when asked about General 
Pope's whereabouts, Mr. Lincoln said, ''he 
has climbed up a pole and pulled the pole up 
after him," General Lee is quoted as hav- 
ing said of him, when he read Pope's bom- 
bastic general orders, dated from headquar- 
ters in the saddle, "that the location was 
properly described, as General Pope's brains 
were reallv in the saddle." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SUMMARY — THi: I^ND. 

Generals came and generals went; indeed 
until General Grant, who was a great man, 
came to the command of the Federal Army, 
when the Confederacy was bled to death and 
had no men with which to fill the wide gaps 
formed in her Hnes, a Federal general would 
last on the average about four months — 
they wore out so fast. Meade was the only 
predecessor of Grant who did not overesti- 
mate his abihty or underestimate General 
Lee's wonderful ability; in consequence of 
which fact General Meade was not used up 
in a few months like the others. Given one 
half the number and one fourth the other 
resources of the Union Government and ar- 
mies, even without a navy, and the Confed- 
eracy would have gained its independence. 

Men, meat, and money were the absent 
elements from the firing of the first gun at 
Sumter up to the last one at Appomattox. I 



SUMMARY — the: E^ND. 213 

never shall forget the sullen determination 
with which General Lee, who had been hero 
enough to look over the hard-fought battle- 
field of Gettysburg and say ''it was all my 
fault," the next day offered battle near 
Hagerstown, which was declined by the Fed- 
eral commander, which we all regretted, as 
we wanted to get even. Nor shall I forget 
the wetting we got in swimming our horses 
across the swollen Potomac as we came back 
to old Virginia. Equally wise were they in 
not spoiling for a fight after the Confederates 
were all over on the south side. 

Meade and McClellan were two of the best 
Generals the Federals developed during that 
war. Grant was a great general and so was 
Sherman, but they had the advantage of hav- 
ing come upon the field after the exhaustion 
of the Confederacy, when they had to con- 
tend only with skirmish lines where there 
would formerly have been lines of battle. 

The naval battle in Hampton Roads in 
1862 gave the Confederates great hope and 
led them to build largely upon the prospect 
of carrying the war to the coast cities of the 
North. I give here a full and accurate ac- 
count of the Virginia, which is vouched for 
by an intelligent officer on board of that ves- 
sel, Captain E. V. White, who was engineer 
on board during the battle, and was entirely 



214 HEJRODS AND SPIES O? THE CIVII. WAR. 

familiar with the building, battle, and entire 
record of this vessel. 

The Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Va., was 
burned, the vessels burned and sunk and the 
place evacuated by the Federals April 19, 
1 86 1. The steam frigate Merrimac was, like 
the other vessels, burned to the waters edge. 
The Confederates took possession of the 
place, raised the hull of the Merrimac, 
and constructed upon her a plated and 
strongly-protected upper works, so thick 
and ingeniously arranged as to make her in- 
vulnerable, while they equipped her for a 
ram, with a steel prow, and armed her with a 
battery that at short range would sink any 
United States vessel afloat. Captain Buchan- 
an was given command of this strange craft, 
with Lieut. Ap. Catesby Jones second officer. 
On the 8th of March, 1862, the vessel, now 
re-named the Virginia left her anchorage and 
went down to tender battle to the Federal 
fleet lying in Hampton Roads. She encoun- 
tered and sunk the Cumberland, blew up the 
Congress, and dispersed the rest of the fleet, 
which took refuge under the guns at Fort- 
ress Monroe, or ran out to sea. The Virginia 
drew twenty-four feet of water and could not 
follow the fleet, the largest vessel of which 
only drew fourteen feet of water, which fact 
enabled any of them to escape. Victory was 



SUMMARY — THE KND. 215 

with the Confederates, but at a dearly bought 
price. Captain Buchanan was seriously 
wounded, as well as a number of his men, and 
in using her ram the Virginia lost her sharp 
steel prow. This disabled her for use as a 
ram. Lieutenant Jones took command, took 
her up to Portsmouth, had her prow hurriedly 
repaired, and on the following day went 
down and made another visit to the Federals. 
The night previous the Ericsson Monitor, a 
turreted iron-clad, had reached Fortress Mon- 
roe, and to her the Virginia turned her at- 
tention. These two vessels, each carrying 
the hopes of her people, met; each found 
that her shot did not disable the other, and 
then the use of the ram was resorted to by 
Lieutenant Jones, and but for her timely es- 
cape by getting into shallow water, into which 
the Virginia could not float, the Monitor 
would have been sunk, as the Virginia was 
too heavy for her, and tried to run her down. 
All the Hghter craft stood out for the open 
sea, keeping the fate of the Cumberland and 
the Congress before their eyes. 

As no vessel on the Federal side would 
meet and fight her, she was taken back to 
Portsmouth, but subsequently went again to 
the Roads, and offered battle to everything 
in sight, but there was nothing down there 
willing to meet her. May loth orders were 



2l6 HEROES AND SPIES Olf THE CIVIL WAR. 

sent from Richmond to bring the Virginia to 
that city, but when its execution was attempt- 
ed it was found when her ballast was taken 
out it left a wide belt of unprotected sides 
exposed, so that any ordinary guns could 
sink her, and that even then there was not 
water in the James River sufficient to enable 
her to go up far enough to be of any use, so 
she was blown up by Lieutenant Jones on 
May nth, 1862 (Sunday), and not destroyed 
by the Monitor, as was claimed by many of 
the newspapers of New York and other lead- 
ing cities in order to alleviate the fears of 
people who had property exposed to possible 
bombardment. It is told that many of the 
wealthy men of Northern cities beset Mr. 
Lincoln by wire and also by committees to 
protect their property against a possible dash 
of the Virginia. He replied, "I have no ves- 
sels, or means at my disposal, with which to 
furnish you protection," and emphasized the 
want of means. They were in no mood to be 
put off, and they begged Mr. Lincoln to giv^ 
them some assurance that they should not be 
bombarded. 

He became worried at their scare and im- 
portunity, and made a characteristic reply, 
saying, "Gentlemen, if I had command of as 
much money as you are worth, I would have 



SUMMARY — TUn tND. 217 

built a vessel for the protection of my coun- 
try and property." 

The Monitor was built as a private enter- 
prise, and only bought by the Government 
after the necessity for such a craft was shown 
by the debut of the Virginia. 

No Federal soldier, sailor, or vessel of any 
size was within five miles of the Virginia 
when she was blown up by her own com- 
mander. That history may not be falsified, 
this fact ought to be insisted upon by the 
children of a generation that made some of 
the most gallant fights, on both land and wa- 
ter, of which the world has ever heard, and 
whose cause was lost beecause God willed 
that slavery should be forever aboHshed and 
the two peoples fused by the fires of war into 
one nation. 

An incident growing out of the most stag- 
gering blow the South ever encountered, 
that is, the mortal wounding of Stonewall 
Jackson, must not be passed by in this his- 
torical record. When Jackson fell the mem- 
bers of his staff tried to carry him out, as not 
only were his own men firing upon him, but 
the enemy was approaching, and, guided by 
the fire of the Southern men, were sweeping 
the road with a leaden hail. One of the men 
who was helping to carry the stretcher upon 
which the General lay was wounded and 



2l8 HEROES AND SPIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

dropped the stretcher, which caused the Gen- 
eral to fall heavily; seeing which, the Rev. 
James P. Smith, chaplain on Jackson's staff, 
finding that the General would in all likeli- 
hood be shot again, laid down against, and 
close beside, the body of the General, so as to 
protect with his own body that of his fallen 
chief, and so continued to protect him until 
he could be removed. 

Captain Marr relates the following in re- 
lation to General Wade Hampton : 

"One morning while the Seventh was in 
camp about ten miles south of the Madison 
River, we learned that the Federals had 
thrown a force of cavalry over to the south- 
ern side the day before. We were ordered 
down to look into the matter. We started 
before daylight, on a dark, drizzly day. My 
squadron was in front, and was ordered to 
go along as quietly as possible, to surprise 
and capture their outpost if possible without 
alarming their support, until close enough, 
and then to charge them suddenly so as to 
create a panic about the time they would be 
getting their breakfast. We knew that Gen. 
Wade Hampton, with part of his command, 
was encamped west of our regiment about 
eight miles from us and the same distance 
from the river, guarding the upper, while we 
guarded the lower part, of that stream; but 



SUMMARY — THEJ DND. 2I9 

we had no reason to expect any of Hamp- 
ton's men to be in our front. When we had 
almost reached the place where we expected 
to find and pounce upon the Federal picket, 
where the road lay through a bushy wood 
with a low fence and deep ditch on its left 
side, the four men in front, with their sabres 
drawn, were surprised to see a fine-looking 
officer jump his horse over both the fence 
and ditch and land in the road directly before 
and only a few feet from them. He was as 
much surprised as we, and promptly held up 
his right hand in token of surrender, as he 
thought we were Federals, as we were all 
wearing rubber cloth against the rain, and 
looked Hke them. We all enjoyed the inci- 
dent greatly when we found that our captive 
was none other than Gen. Wade Hampton, 
who had started with his staff to go to our 
camp, left them nearly a mile behind him, 
and had jumped his fine horse over every 
obstacle in his way, and came out into that 
road dangerously near the enemy, as only a 
half a mile further on we captured the Fed- 
eral pickets, charged their camp, and made a 
big haul of prisoners and horses." 

General Hampton was a fine soldier, a 
grand looking man, a splendid cavalry officer. 
That old State never produced a better man 
or soldier, and that is saying much. A re- 



220 HE:R0E:S and SPIES OF THE CIVII, WAR. 

markable illustration of the bravery of the 
men of North Carolina I witnessed at Chan- 
cellorsville, where I counted one hundred 
and forty-nine dead North Carolinians within 
a radius of fifty feet from the center of a little 
pine opening. This was a battle than which 
few if any have been more bloody. Trees as 
large as the body of an ordinary man were 
cut off and cut into spHnters of every size 
by minie bullets. No artillery at all was used 
in that portion of the field. I could not find 
a rod as large as a man's finger that had not 
been struck one or more times, and indeed 
if a rabbit had remained all the time in any 
one place during that battle it would have 
been killed. Twelve thousand muskets were 
gathered from the field as an evidence of the 
work done there. That any man survived 
was owing to God's protection and the fact 
that the men were moving about all the time. 
When the news first reached Lexington of 
the surrender of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, gloom and sadness settled down over 
all. Even the sun seemed to shine with a 
sickly glare and the green fields to have lost 
all their freshness and beauty. Men and wo- 
men wept bitterly, while all could realize the 
anguish and disappointment that filled the 
great heart of Lee and the little band of his 
devoted followers, the remnant of the once 



SUMMARY"~-THE5 END. 221 

terrible host the sound of whose tread had 
filled the cities of the North with panic, and 
whose yell had become the signal and pre- 
curser of victory— now melted away to a 
bare eight thousand ragged, half-starved 
men, who had surrendered to the greatest 
and most magnanimous of the Federal gen- 
erals. The Southern States, cities, towns 
and counties had each contributed their quo- 
ta to the insatiable demands of war, until in 
many of them a man or boy capable of bear- 
ing arms or of rendering military service was 
not to be found at home ; while the products 
of the earth had been either consumed or 
destroyed so completely that, as was said by 
General Sheridan, in speaking of the Valley 
of Virginia, that he had so devastated it that 
a crow flying over it would have to carry his 
rations ! The spirit of sacrifice was universal. 
The author remembers having been impor- 
tuned by the farmers of the Moorefield Val- 
ley to burn all their crops that we could not 
carry ofif, in order to keep them out of the 
hands of the Federals. 

In some instances a few men, chiefly in the 
cities, took refuge from the conscript offi- 
cers by pleading that they were needed at 
home, and succeeded in escaping service by 
alleging that they were druggists or follow- 
ing some calling which prevented their en- 



222 HEROKS AND SPIES OF THE) CIVIIv WAR. 

tering the army. In this way the cowardly 
skins of some were shielded, some of whom 
survived to be war men in time of peace, as 
they had been peace men in time of war. 
Often these men were among those who had 
been members of volunteer regiments who 
had held commissions as military officers, but 
who, when war came, became convinced of 
the weakness of their constitutions or cour- 
age. 

Would that it were within the range of 
this little work for the author to name there- 
in families even conspicuous in a marked de- 
gree for the sacrifices made by them in send- 
ing their sons freely at their country's call, 
but this is impossible. 

At the close of the war an effort was made 
to collect the scattered bones of all the Con- 
federates that had been hastily buried near 
where they fell, and to reinter them in ceme- 
teries in the writer's native county of Jeffer- 
son, now a part of West Virginia. Nine men 
began the w^ork by a determination to dis- 
inter first the remains of General Turner Ash- 
by from Charlottesville, Va., and to take them 
to Charles Town. This they did, and then in 
solemn funeral procession, with a guard com- 
posed of men who had followed him in all of 
his campaigns as an escort to take the re- 
mains by hearse drawn by six white horses, 



SUMMARY — THE 15ND. 2 23 

attended by a mounted cavalcade, to Win- 
chester, over a road upon which he had pick- 
eted and skirmished an hundred times. With 
solemn pageant he was buried in Winchester, 
Lieut. Col. Marshall's bones being brought 
and buried at the same time. That to some 
of his old soldiers was the last time they 
would ever wear the garb so well known as 
Confederate Gray. The actors in this scene, 
encouraged by their success in the discharge 
of this pious duty, made one further effort to 
pay the last possible tribute to their fallen 
comrades, and succeeded in collecting at 
Edgehill Cemetery, in Charles Town, the 
body of every Confederate soldier who fell 
in that county, and marked their graves so 
that annually they could be strewn with flow- 
ers and their heroic deeds be repeated from 
sire to son. 

So fully and well was this work done that 
the author has known instances in which 
friends have come up from the remote sec- 
tions of the South, and on learning that their 
loved ones were buried there and found them 
so well guarded and cared for, that they 
would not remove them, saying that they 
could not rest in the midst of truer friends if 
buried in the homes of their own childhood. 
Could there be a grander tribute to our de- 
votion ? 



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